Skip to footer

Cuba, here they come: US approves six air carriers

The six companies will be allowed up to 10 daily round-trip flights to cities other than Havana, the US Transportation Department announced Friday. 

|
Scott Mayerowitz/ AP
On June 9, 2016, Galo Beltran, Cuba country manager for American Airlines, tests a handheld baggage scanner at Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport. Beltran is based in Dallas. The Department of Transportation said in June that six airlines: American, Frontier, JetBlue, Silver Airways, Southwest and Sun Country, have been selected for routes to nine Cuban cities other than Havana.
  • By Reuters

| WASHINGTON, D.C.

The United States approved scheduled flights to Cuban cities other than Havana from five U.S. cities, with service starting as soon as this fall, the U.S. Transportation Department said in a statement on Friday.

American Airlines Group Inc, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways Corp, Silver Airways, Southwest Airlines Co and Sun Country Airlines will be allowed up to 10 daily round-trip flights, the department said. The flights will be allowed from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Chicago, Philadelphia and Minneapolis/St. Paul, it added.

The United States and Cuba signed an agreement this year restoring commercial air service between the former Cold War foes for the first time in decades. Under the agreement, 20 daily round-trip flights will be allowed to Havana but U.S. carriers have requested nearly 60 flights per day, far exceeding the limit.

The Transportation Department said it expects to reach a final decision on which carriers will get the limited Havana slots this summer.

The department said seven U.S. airlines applied to provide service to other Cuban cities. With the exception of Eastern Airlines, which has not received necessary licensing, the government approved all of the route proposals.

"While US tourism to the island nation is still technically prohibited, Americans can travel to Cuba on an organized trip as long as it is an educational "person to person" experience that includes interactions with Cuban people," The Christian Science Monitor's Max Lewontin wrote in May, as the first US cruise ship set sail for Cuba in more than 50 years:

But because the State Department has offered few guidelines on exactly what that entails, as the Associated Press notes, "'educational travel' is so broad it can include virtually any activity that isn't lying on a beach drinking mojitos." In addition to Carnival's Fathom, other cruise lines have also been negotiating to include Cuba as a destination for American travelers.

Reporting by David Shepardson, Susan Heavey, Jeffrey Dastin and Tim Ahmann; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and James Dalgleish

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Cuba, here they come: US approves six air carriers
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2016/0610/Cuba-here-they-come-US-approves-six-air-carriers
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe