US, Cuba to resume regular flight service

“We are working on a civil aviation agreement and a variety of other things”, said Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis, U.S. embassy in Havana.

Any planes landing in the U.S. will have to meet USA safety standards, so any old Russian planes in the Cuban fleet will likely only fly domestically within Cuba.

Today (December 17) marks one year since the United States and Cuba chose to normalise relations.

“Interest in Cuba has reached levels not seen for a generation”, said Scott Laurence, senior vice president airline planning, JetBlue.

Underlining the sensitivity of closer ties, particularly among the sizable Cuban diaspora in the United States, anti-Castro protesters hit the streets in Miami and Washington. Those traveling from Boston most commonly take a connecting flight to Cuba from John F. Kennedy International Airport in NY, according to travel website TripAdvisor.

As for the economic embargo on the island, although Obama has taken executive measures to make flexible the travel and some commercial transactions, the complete lifting depends on the U.S. Congress, now controlled entirely by Republicans, who overwhelmingly oppose the disposal.

However, U.S. law still forbids Americans to travel to the island for tourism.

There is also evidence that the normalization of bilateral relations has prompted a surge in Cubans migrating to the US.

From the United States point of view, trade restrictions place U.S. firms at a competitive disadvantage and cost the USA economy an estimated $2 billion a year in exports, USA lawmakers said Wednesday. The number of Cubans arriving this year is more than double last year’s total – and about five times higher than in 2011. Here’s a rundown of the major changes that have happened in the last 12 months.

Why is everyone saying that Americans can now travel to Cuba?

Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington continues to press Havana on human rights and political prisoners.

“We’re going to give our best on this visit and we appreciate the opportunity we’ve been given”, said Yasiel Puig, who left Cuba illegally in 2012.

“Spending time with Americans is considered subversive activity, so anyone who does it in an unofficial setting is suspect”, she says.

His fondness for the game has been obvious all week here during Major League Baseball’s three-day visit, whether it was the young Castro bending Hall of Famer Joe Torre’s ear at a famous Cuban restaurant or pulling officials with the leagues and union aside for conversations during the clinics that eight active major-league players have participated in this week.

“When the United States shuttered our embassy in 1961, I don’t think anyone thought it would be more than half a century before it reopened”, President Barack Obama had said. “That’s the kind of personal engagement that could be a transformative moment in this relationship”.