American Airlines expands Cuba role

On a day when American Airlines announced it would begin charter service between Los Angeles and Cuba – its first foray into Havana from the west coast – the Obama Administration is quietly pushing for more.

Current U.S. laws permit Americans to visit “only for specific purposes, including business trips, family visits or the people-to-people exchanges”, the Journal notes.

Michael Zuccato, general manager of Cuba Travel Services, said tickets from LAX to Havana would cost around $900 and include Cuban medical insurance, a mandate of the Cuban government.

There are now nonstop charter flights available from multiple airports in Florida, New York City and Baltimore.

Americans are still banned from tourism on the island even if the US Embassy in Havana, closed in 1961, was officially reopened last Friday by Secretary of State John Kerry who hoisted the American flag outside the building. While Congress hasn’t acted to lift legislation limiting travel and trade, the administration has taken steps on its own to break down diplomatic barriers.

Should travel open entirely for U.S. travelers, some 50,000 hotel rooms in Cuba would brace for some 10 million American tourists per year, according to a 2008 study by the international Monetary Fund on opening travel between the two countries.

Neither the White House nor the State Department immediately responded to TheBlaze Tuesday.

American Airlines (AAL) plan to start flying direct from Los Angeles to Havana later this year.

He is taking the same posture with Cuba as he has with Obamacare and the Iran nuclear deal, the newspaper reports, hoping “the initiatives will become so embedded in American policy over Mr. Obama’s final 18 months in office that undoing them would be too difficult”.