Cuba and US agree to resume commercial flights

While the normalization of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba is moving ahead, and the US and Cuban flags have been proudly waving in Havana and Washington, respectively, since last July, the year gone by since the thaw has left many unanswered questions.

Following the announcement, several airlines in the USA said plan to offer scheduled service.

“Everybody should be happy because, through baseball, we’re uniting countries, ” Tony Castro, president of the Cuban Baseball Federation, said Thursday.

American’s vice president for regulatory affairs, Howard Kass, declined to specify how many of those routes the airline would seek.

In a short statement, the US State Department said that on Wednesday Washington and Havana had reached “a bilateral arrangement to establish scheduled air services between the two countries”. Messrs. Obama and Castro twice met face to face this year and Mr. Obama said this week he hopes to travel to Cuba before the end of his second term if conditions are right.

USA teams played spring training games in Cuba before Castro’s revolution but none appeared here from March 1959 until the Baltimore Orioles faced Cuba’s national team in Havana in March 1999.

The announcement comes as travel between the U.S. and Cuba surged by an estimated 50% this year. Over the summer, the United States officially reopened its Havana embassy and the US flag flew over it for the first time since 1961. “It’s the best way for us because we have parents there and here and this is very good for relations”.

President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced on December 17, 2014 that they planned to normalize relations, following 18 months of secret negotiations.

Regarding the USA economic embargo on the communist island, although Obama has taken executive action to ease travel restrictions and some commercial transactions, the complete lifting of the embargo may only be done by Congress, which at present is controlled by the Republicans, a majority of whom are against eliminating it.

The agreement paves the way for thousands of visitors to the island on a daily basis.

USA companies trying to do business in Cuba say bureaucrats have welcomed their proposals in friendly face-to-face meetings but months later there still is no concrete “yes” or “no”.

Thirty more flights a day would more than double current USA air traffic to Cuba but it may take years to reach that number.

“For me it’s a lot of money and there are only a couple of planes that go over there”, he said.

Joined by pitcher Pedro Luis Lazo and other Cuban baseball players who have stayed on the island, the major league stars divided the 10- and 11-year-old youths into five groups and ran them through calisthenics and drills, offering them advice. If the bidding process works like it has to other historically restricted markets, the DOT could have its hands full in deciding how to divvy up the Cuba flights.