From Houston to Cuba
The historic first journey to Cuba marks ‘direct access to home’
Lissette Alves was 6 years old when her family boarded a boat in Cuba for Key West, Fla. She’s waited her entire life for more direct access to the island nation, and on Saturday, she witnessed that moment as a gate agent for United Airlines.
Armed with a box of tissues, Alves, now 42, helped passengers board United’s inaugural Houston-Havana flight at Bush Intercontinental Airport. The comfort of the Boeing 737-800, especially in stark contrast to the boat ride she had, gives Alves hope for the future.
“It’s direct access to home,” she said. “There’s just no way to put that in words.”
The on-time departure of Flight UA1506 ushers in a new era of regular commercial flights to Cuba, part of President Barack Obama’s larger efforts to normalize relations.
“It is an expression of belief that we can resurrect our relationship with a friend, a neighbor that has languished for over half a century,” said Mario
Diaz, director of the Houston Airport System.
In February, officials from the U.S. and Cuban governments signed an arrangement that allows U.S. carriers to operate 110 daily round-trip flights to Cuba — 20 daily round-trip flights between the U.S. and Havana and 10 daily round-trip flights between the U.S. and each of Cuba’s nine other international airports.
Demand is there
In addition to the Saturday-only nonstop service from Houston, United began offering daily nonstop flights between Newark Liberty International Airport and Havana on Tuesday.
And while a Tweet from President-elect Donald Trump has created concern that his administration might roll back Obama’s efforts, the airline isn’t speculating. It is focused on launching and growing its two routes to Havana.
“As for what comes next, we’ll focus on that when we need to and if we need to,” said Steve Morrissey, United’s vice president of regulatory and policy.
He said Houston got a Havana flight partly because it’s United’s gateway to Latin America, offering 91 daily nonstop flights to 52 destinations across Latin America and the Caribbean.
“The number of applications were heavily weighted toward South Florida,” Morrissey said. “We know that there’s demand for this service from across the country.”
Eight U.S. airlines were given permission to fly to Havana from 10 U.S. cities. Outside of Havana, six domestic airlines were approved to fly from five U.S. cities to Cuban cities other than Havana.
American Airlines has already disclosed plans to reduce its flights to Cuba, a spokeswoman confirmed Saturday. Starting in February, it will drop to 10 daily flights from 13.
Able to visit relatives
Yeniset Giniebra, of Cypress, moved to the U.S. about five years ago to work as a control systems engineer. She was taking the inaugural flight to visit family and said the nonstop commercial offering is cheaper and faster than previous options.
Tatiana Abramov and her son Dennis, 33, also were visiting family. Den- nis’ father is Cuban and he spent his early years on the island but hasn’t returned since.
“It’s going to be a very, very exciting moment for everybody,” Tatiana said.
She said her son is outgoing — making him more Cuban than Russian, her home country, so she hopes the new flight will allow him to visit relatives more.
Tourism is still not permitted to Cuba, so travelers must fall into authorized categories, such as family visits, journalistic activities, religious activities or educational purposes. People-to-people education has allowed Americans to visit Cuba through organized groups focused on educational experiences, but this can be expensive.
So in March, individual people-to-people educational travel was permitted to “make authorized educational travel to Cuba more accessible and less expensive for U.S. citizens,” according to a news release. Travelers must engage in a full-time schedule of educational exchange activities.
Mike Weingart, Houston-based president of the southwest chapter of the American Society of Travel Agents, said interest for Cuban travel has picked up in the past two years. “I’m getting lots of inquiry, but people have a lot of sticker shock, too,” he said of the organized trips that comply with current regulations.
A dream moment
Mayor Sylvester Turner also highlighted the business opportunities available in Cuba, which he said has a special appeal in Houston because of its “incredibly strong business and cultural ties” to Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Business owners and entrepreneurs have dreamed about the moment when they would be able to explore business opportunities waiting for them just 900 miles away from the spot where we are today and 90 miles from the United States coast,” Turner said Saturday.
Alves, the United gate agent, plans to visit Cuba soon. She said it was difficult watching everyone board the plane while she remained in Houston.
“Seeing everybody going home, I feel like I want to be on that plane,” she said, “even if it’s just a Uturn.”