THE United States and Cuba reached an agreement to restore commercial flights between both countries for the first time in more than 50 years, the State Department announced Thursday, Dec. 17.
The historic achievement takes place exactly one year after the US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced they would restore full relations. BBC reported the deal could jumpstart economic relations between the two nations.
Under the agreement, both countries will continue allowing charter flights, which have been the only means for people to fly directly from the US to Cuba. However, airlines will now be able to set regularly scheduled flights the way they do for other destinations, according to the State Department and Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“This arrangement will continue to allow charter operations and establish scheduled air service, which will facilitate an increase in authorized travel, enhance traveler choices and promote people-to-people links between the two countries,” according to the announcement.
Officials say the pact could mean more than a dozen flights arriving into Cuba from the US, according to BBC.
US airlines praised the new deal. New York-based airlines JetBlue, which has operated charter flights to Cuba from New York, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa since 2011, said officials will submit an application for new routes established by the new agreements, according to USA Today.
“Interest in Cuba has reached levels not seen for a generation,” Scott Laurence, senior vice president of airline planning for JetBlue, said in a statement. “We will review the terms of the agreement to understand how JetBlue can expand from charter service to regularly scheduled service.”
As the United States and Cuba have worked toward normalizing relations, both re-opened embassies in each other’s capitals in the summer. They also established medical, communication and tourism deals.
Despite the agreement, touristic travel to Cuba, however, remains in place, the State Department said. Travel to Cuba from the US is only approved for 12 categories, including close relatives of Cubans, journalists, individuals participating in educational programs, and people on humanitarian or religious missions, among others.
Since Obama eased restrictions on traveling to Cuba, US visits to the island nation have spiked by more than 70 percent, with 138,000 arrivals having occurred in the first 11 months of 2015, Reuters reported.
The US still has an economic embargo on Cuba, which can only be lifted by Congress. Obama on Thursday renewed his call for the legislature to end the embargo, but the Republicans who dominate Congress say they will not end or change it unless significant changes are made in Cuba’s communist-run government.
