Early last year sanctions began to be lifted between the US and Cuba, following the embargo that was in place for decades. This was huge news for those looking to travel to Cuba, since it created more circumstances under which US tourists could visit (and those travel restrictions have been eased even further since then).…
Continue reading: DOT Tentatively Grants 8 Airlines Rights To Fly To Havana — Here Are The Routes
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Weird no flights from DFW on AA or any flights from ORD on any airline. The Alaska flight is an oddball too. Would have expected more flights from ATL on DL as well.
Good to see American only going 4X daily instead of 16? Looking forward to a flight from Chicago.
Looking at the routes another by frequency and city, noted that NYC (incl EWR) gets 3 per day and MIA/FLL get 12 per day (except Saturday, which is 11). Probably not much demand originating in CLT, although would be big for connections on legacy US.
1/week from IAH (UA)
1/day from LAX (AS)
1/day from CLT (AA)
1/day from ATL (DL)
1/day from TPA (WN)
1/day from MCO (B6)
1/day from EWR (UA)
2/day from JFK (DL, B6)
6/day from FLL (B6x2, NKx2, WNx2)
6/day from MIA (AAx4, DL, F9)
Do we have any idea which terminal at HAV the scheduled flights will use? The charter terminal (perhaps the worst International terminal I've ever used) or the international terminal that Aeromexico/Copa/etc use?
It looks like United, amongst the big carriers, really lost out. Only one daily flight and one weekly rotation.
Is that what they requested, or did someone crap on United?
Kevin, United only requested daily from Newark. They requested weekly from Chicago, Dulles, and Houston. So they got most of what they wanted.
"Only 20 of those daily frequencies could be commercial flights to Havana, though, while the other frequencies would have to be to other cities in Cuba (where there’s presumably a lot less demand)."
I find it fascinating that Americans are so focused on Havana. Havana is not the primary vacation destination that you all appear to think it is. Veradero, Cayo Coco and Holguín have long been the primary resort towns visited by Canadians & Europeans. If anything, I'm shocked to hear that the airlines weren't clamoring to grab those routes...
I would have expected AA to also get LAX to add some competition in that market. It seems that competition was well established in Florida.
I also don't see where the airlines think they will have the volume to support these flights. Officially, tourism and most business is still not allowed. Just cultural / family and some business visits right now?
@Navin: have to agree, it would have been nice to have a direct...connection it is I suppose.
@ dmodemd
"Officially, tourism and most business is still not allowed"
One of the allowed reasons is: "support for the Cuban people". wink wink...
That's a big enough loophole to drive an 18 wheeler thru without even slowing down.
Besides, who is being tasked with enforcing this? I'm guessing no one. 😉
Don't understand a few of these - JetBlue should have gotten TPA based on their charter service, and I'm not sure why they get one fewer FLL on Saturday (unless they requested it and I missed that.). And I don't understand the Frontier service from MIA, they're a small player in MIA. Also a little surprised that 3 different NYC-MIA routes got the nod.
It was nice to see the Feds not bend over backward to satisfy WN, though...I expected Southwest to get more.
Not sure the AS service from LAX will work, but points to them for trying, I guess.
Lucky what's the chances I can purchase a ticket and get a flight to Havana from Fla. or Houston by late October or mid November. This Paul