The U.S. issued approvals for six U.S. airlines to begin commercial flights to Cuba, starting this fall, but held off on picking which airlines can fly to Havana.
The airlines are now free to seek approval from the Cuban government, which is expected to be relatively trouble-free. Because the airlines applied, among them, for more than 3 times the 20 daily round trips to Havana available under the U.S.-Cuban agreement, the Department of Transportation is still working out sharing.
The airlines receiving routes are American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlueAirways, Silver Airways, Southwest Airlines and Sun Country Airlines. Flights will be available from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Philadelphia, Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul. No flights from NY or Los Angeles are in the group, but many of the Havana applications include those cities.
The Cuban cities they will fly to are Camagüey, Cayo Coco, Cayo Largo, Cienfuegos, Holguín, Manzanillo, Santa Clara, Santiago de Cuba and Varadero. Flights, under the agreements and rules, should go on sale later this summer for flights starting in fall or winter.
Two big questions remain: What is the future for the authorized travel companies that have used charter flights by American and JetBlue for their trips, and, biggest: With official restrictions on ‘ purely vacation’ travel to Cuba still in place for U.S. citizens, will there be enough bodies to fill that many seats to all those cities, some of which primarily serve beach resorts.
