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JetBlue Starts Weekly Charter Flights to Havana from New York
On Friday, JetBlue officially started its direct flight from John F Kennedy worldwide Airport in New York to Cuba becoming the first major carrier in the U.S.to make the trip since restrictions on travel to Cuba were eased by the Obama Administration earlier in 2015.
The route between New York City and Havana is one of the company’s five weekly round trips to the island – the others operate from the airports at Tampa and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood in the state of Florida.
Lazaro Iglesias of Kearny, NJ was returning to Cuba for the first time since he immigrated to the U.S. in the year 2002.
JetBlue announced its plan to offer weekly non-stop flights back in May and the first flight took off Friday afternoon.
American-born 6-year-old Richard Ramos said, “I’m going to see Mommy’s home!”
On Wednesday, the two governments announced that they will reopen their respective embassies on July 20.
“JetBlue already has a proven track record of providing outstanding service to the Caribbean and has operated a series of successful charters to Cuba since 2011″, Scott Laurence, the carrier’s senior vice president for airline planning, said in a statement. The New York-based airline has partnered with Cuba Travel Services, Xael Charters, and ABC Charters on those flights. This means JetBlue now has the strongest presence as far as the Caribbean is concerned. “My wife cuba” target=”_blank”>told me, ‘Honey, now you can go every six months”.
Friday’s flight marked the first time one of its planes flew the new route with passengers aboard.
“This is wonderful that we can connect these people with their families whom they haven’t seen in years”, says Linda Meech, JetBlue’s general manager in Tampa.
JetBlue employees are not allowed to explore Cuba, but shortly are expected to be able to look around the island.
“This is something we’re going to talk about for years and years and years”. Infante visited his family in Cuba for the first time without having to face restrictions regarding travel.
