Obama asks Congress to lift embargo on Cuba

It’s unclear if those flights would completely replace charters, but they appear certain to create a surge in travel that would place heavy strain on Cuba’s already overstrained tourist infrastructure. Your options for getting there are about to expand.

The U.S. Department of State did announce today an agreement to resume commercial air flights between Cuba and the United States.

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

The agreement was made official on Thursday to mark the one-year anniversary of the announcements by Presidents Obama and Castro that their countries were restoring diplomatic ties.

American Airlines said in a release that it will submit a US-Cuba service proposal to the US Transportation Department and wants to introduce flights as soon as possible in 2016. Don’t reach for your wallet and favorite travel-booking site quite yet, though.

In addition, thanks to the change in USA policy toward Cuba, Washington is “in a stronger position” to engage “the people and governments of our hemisphere”, Obama said.

As for the power of people-to-people engagement, Quintana says she doubts it can have much impact in the case of Cuba, where she says a fearful government does its best to limit contact between average Cubans and visiting Americans.

Following the détente announced a year ago, Cuba and the USA have worked from January 2015 on several peace-building mechanisms intended smooth things over after decades of resentment.

While it will likely take months before American travelers will be able to board a commercial flight to Havana, the aviation deal represents the huge step forward for the two countries and a choice opportunity for the US airline industry.

From the USA point of view, trade restrictions place U.S. firms at a competitive disadvantage and cost the United States economy an estimated $2 billion a year in exports, U.S. lawmakers said Wednesday. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R., Fla.), a son of Cuban exiles, said in an interview that Mr. Obama’s policy has coincided with a sharp increase in Cubans leaving the island as well as an increase in the number of political arrests.

Authorized American travel to the island is up 50 percent this year, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, who heads the U.S. Embassy in Havana, said Tuesday.

But until this week there has been virtually no progress on business ties, a major part of Obama’s new policy on Cuba.

“Right now both countries are finalising logistical details of an operational nature in order to begin flights carrying direct mail between Cuba and the United States”, she added. JetBlue will offer more nonstop flights to Cuba from New York, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa.