Airlines line up for Cuba flights
The United States and Cuba signed an aviation agreement Tuesday that paves the way for the first regularly scheduled flights between the countries in nearly five decades.
The deal opens up 110 flights to Cuba on U.S. carriers. Of those, 20 will be to Havana. An additional 10 daily flights will be allowed to each of the country’s nine other international airports.
U.S. airlines have a 15-day window to request rights to the new Cuba routes. They would then negotiate deals with Cuban aviation officials. U.S. travelers must still certify their trips are for one of 12 purposes; independent tourism is not yet permitted.
Nearly every big U.S. airline said it would apply for at least some Cuba routes.
American, the USA’s biggest carrier, said it will apply for flights from its hub at Miami.
JetBlue, one of the fastestgrowing carriers in the Caribbean this decade, indicated it would seek approval for multiple routes between the nations.
“JetBlue eagerly awaits the opportunity to grow our service with regularly scheduled routes between various U.S. and Cuban cities,” Rob Land, the airline’s senior vice president of government affairs, said in a statement.
Delta Air Lines joined the list, saying it would apply for Cuba flights from its main hub in Atlanta. The carrier indicated Cuba flights would be considered from its other hubs, too.
“The U.S. Transportation Department is expected to notify applying airlines by summer which frequencies and routes are approved,” Joe Esposito, Delta’s vice president of network planning, said in a statement.
United Airlines said it “intends to apply to offer service between some of its global gateways and Havana,” but did not specify which airports it would seek approval for.
Southwest’s statement read a bit more cautiously than its rivals, saying only that Tuesday’s “signed agreement allows us to engage in a process to consider that service.”