Cuba ready to welcome U.S. commercial flights
HAVANA — Cuba said Friday that it was ready to receive U.S. commercial flights beginning next week and that it viewed their renewal after being suspended in 1961 as another positive step in a growing detente.
JetBlue is scheduled to inaugurate direct flights between the longtime nemeses Monday, when it flies from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Villa Clara in central Cuba.
American Airlines will start flying from Miami to the provinces in September, followed by other airlines.
There will be 20 daily flights to Havana by the end of the year.
“It is a positive step and contribution to the improving relations between Cuba and the United States,” Deputy Transportation Minister Eduardo Rodriguez told local media.
Josefina Vidal, who heads Cuba’s U.S. diplomacy department, said Cuba had confirmed the JetBlue flight, removing the last technical hurdle of official approval.
Rodriguez said U.S. airlines would be handled in a similar fashion as the 110 airlines currently flying to Cuba and with equal attention to security issues that were already a normal part of the country’s system.
“Cuba is strong in matters of operational and aviation security, which are recognized internationally,” the Communist Party daily, Granma, quoted him as stating.
Seventeen U.S. charter flights land every day in Cuba, but they are expected to gradually succumb to competition from the airlines.
Cuba has been experiencing a tourism boom since the announcement in December 2014 that the United States would normalize diplomatic ties and work to solve various outstanding issues.
Last year a record 3.5 million tourists visited, straining dilapidated infrastructure and pushing up prices, especially in the capital. Thousands of homes now rent out rooms, helping to ease the strain, and some 2,000 private restaurants have opened.
The Obama administration has focused on allowing normal travel, loosening restrictions despite a ban on tourism that only Congress can lift, and authorizing travel-related businesses to set up shop in Cuba and communications companies and banks to provide support such as roaming and credit cards.