Eight US airlines have been put forward by the country’s Department of Transportation (DoT) to begin regular flights connecting Havana to Atlanta, Charlotte, Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, New York, Orlando and Tampa. When? As soon as this autumn.
The authorities insist that this is something provisional, and that the airlines will not be authorised to sell tickets until the final decision is made public ‘at some point at the end of the summer’ a statement published today by the body says.
“Thanks to President Obama we are opening up new paths to Cuba” the official DOT Twitter account announced, alluding to the proposal presented by the US Secretary of Transport, Anthony Fox, who added:
“The restauration of regular air service has enormous potential to reunite Cuban-American families and to strengthen education and business opportunities for American entities of all sizes.”
The airlines that are in receipt of the tentative licences are: Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines and United Airlines.
The principal objective of the aforementioned Department, according to the announcement, in selecting its proposals is in maximising the public benefit, including is its choices the airlines that offer and are capable of maintaining a the best service. The selection process – the statement explains – also sought to give the public a gamut of options (network, low cost, ultra-low cost, etc.) choices of airport, and choices of non-stop or with connections. Moreover, they have chosen areas with considerable Cuban-American populations in the USA, and cities with significant air traffic.
Today, we take another important step toward delivering on President Obama’s promise to reengage #Cuba https://t.co/qVmGTzURBo — Anthony Foxx (@SecretaryFoxx) 7 July 2016
A dozen had applied to operate scheduled passenger and cargo flights destined to the Cuban capital. Overall, they were requesting about sixty flights daily, exceeding the twenty available under the current agreement between the two governments, under which each country can also operate up to ten flights daily return between the US and each of the nine international airports in Cuba, except in Havana, reaching a total of ninety return flights daily. The Department of Transportation has signalled that objections to its provisional decision will be accepted until July 22 and answered within a week. The final decision, as per the announcement last June 10 when the airlines that will fly to Cuba were made public, will be made public later this summer.
@SecretaryFoxx Proposes U.S. Airlines and Cities for New Scheduled Service to Havana https://t.co/z8nHd6qmCI pic.twitter.com/r9NEp6SNxy — TransportationGov (@USDOT) 7 July 2016
On 16 February this year Secretary Foxx and deputy secretary of the Department of State for Economic and Business Affairs, Charles Rivkin, signed an agreement with their Cuban counterparts reopening the way for a scheduled air service between the two countries after more 50 years. As part of this – as the DOT statement indicates – visits for travellers that fall into one of the twelve categories authorized by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) – US Department of the Treasury, will be facilitated. For the moment, Americans can visit, but not as tourists.
In this sense and at almost a year of restoring diplomatic relations between the two countries, officials insist they are taking important steps in the policy of rapprochement with Cuba, but “significant limitations” persist regarding air transportation between the island and the United States. “Any failure of authority in this proceeding will not alleviate the obligation of the parties to comply with the requirements and regulations set forth by other US agencies, and in general with all the laws of the United States.”
The majority of the airlines propose to begin service in the autumn and winter of 2016-2017 “and those that receive authorisation will probably begin selling tickets well in advance of their start state”, the DOT assure.
