LOGAN SET TO CONNECT BOSTON AND HAVANA
New direct flights from Boston Logan International Airport and Havana, Cuba, will let visitors from both countries make the trip in a matter of hours.
“It’s a good thing,” said Nobel Garcia, who was born in Cuba and now is the owner of El Oriental de Cuba in Jamaica Plain. “There’s a lot of Cubans and Americans who would like to go to Cuba.”
Friday, the U.S. Department of Transportation said it has selected JetBlue’s weekly direct flight from Logan to Havana as one of just a handful of authorized trips to the island. In a statement, JetBlue said it is “thrilled” with the development.
“We are especially excited to finally connect Logan and Havana with the only nonstop service between New England and Cuba,” JetBlue said.
The new flights will become official after a formal comment period, but it is unclear when service will start.
Other new flights to Havana will leave from Houston, Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Service was initially approved by the Department of Transportation in 2016, but some carriers have dropped their service. Last week’s announcement was meant to fill those slots. Massport, which operates Logan, has been lobbying to have direct flights to Havana since the Obama administration reopened passenger service in early 2016, but had not been successful until now.
“We think this will make a lot of business and leisure travelers happy since we’ve received a lot of inquiries about this possibility over the last couple of years,” said Jennifer Mehigan, a Massport spokeswoman.
Garcia said he has not been back to Cuba since he was 8 years old and hopes to see his relatives there soon.
“I’m still waiting for the right moment for when you can roam free in Cuba,” he said. “I would like to see where I was born.”
Service to Cuba is also expected to have a significant economic benefit, said Bill Delahunt, a former Massachusetts congressman and now a lawyer who represented Massport during the application process. Delahunt, now an attorney with Eckert Seamans, played a leading role in Congress’ Cuba policy when he was in office.
“I think it will provide significant opportunities for Massachusetts and the Boston area, particularly in the area of life sciences,” Delahunt said. “There has been significant, very advanced sophisticated research done in the whole health care, life science, biotech in Cuba. I expect it will be a real plus for Boston and for Massachusetts.”
‘I expect it to be a real plus for Boston and Massachusetts.’ — BILL DELAHUNT, ex-Bay State congressman and lawyer for Massport