Flights to Havana from the U.S. were just ramping up this year when two U.S. airlines decided to call for cuts. Beginning October 29, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines, two US airlines, will operate fewer flights to Havana. This move follows what was herald as a return to Cuba last year by U.S. airlines recognizing the promise of tourism and travel this island nation holds. As the Biden administration reopens the diplomatic channels that were closes by the Trump administration, U.S. carriers starts building routes for flights to Havana and schedules to carry many of the 1.2+ million visitors to the island destination.
Delta Air lines lead the charge with two daily nonstop flights to Havana from Miami International Airport (MIA) beginning last April. A year ago, the USDOT had approves more than a dozen new flights to Cuba on American Airlines and JetBlue. The new flights — including 13 weekly American Airlines flights from Miami and a weekly JetBlue flight from Fort Lauderdale — launches last fall and added to American’s six daily flights and JetBlue’s three weekday flights to Havana. Southwest Airlines also serves Havana with flights from Ft. Lauderdale and Tampa.
As of November 2022, four U.S. airlines operated a total of 147 weekly flights to Havana from the U.S.: American, JetBlue, United, and Southwest. American Airlines continues to dominate U.S. scheduled service to the island, counting some 84 weekly flights. Southwest operates 29 weekly flights, JetBlue, 20, and United offers 14. Certainly, business travelers and others looking to travel to Cuba in less friendly times able to do so on such non U.S. carriers as Air Canada and Aeromexico, among others.
Changes: Flights to Havana
But last month the zeal for all that changes. Delta request a half-cut of its flights to Havana from Miami, or seven of the fourteen trips, as well as a suspension of the seven routes it now operates between Atlanta, where it has its headquarters, and Havana until March 30, 2024. Although the airline intends to restore demand to resume travel, the airline claims that the route is underutilized.
United Airlines, on the other hand, request on June 8, 2023, that its flights to Havana from Newark be suspended owing to “economic circumstances.” As a result, Cuba would no longer be serves by direct flights from this New York area airport starting at the end of this month.
Starting In November: Flights to Havana
As its sole route starting in November, United stated that it “does not want prolonged downtime for these frequencies” and will instead concentrate on that route, which runs flights between Houston and Havana.
The news came out shortly after JetBlue’s connections to the Island nation were suspended on September 17. The firm stated in a statement that the reason for the suspension of flights to Havana was due to “changes in the regulatory landscape and restrictions on the ability of our customers to enter Cuba.”
Resuming regular flights to Havana after a 50-year hiatus, the firm stated in 2016 that it “hopes to resume our service to Havana and continue looking for opportunities within Cuba in case travel is more accessible in the future.”
Cuba attracted 1,489,286 foreign visitors as of July. This number is still considerably behind projections and emphasizes the challenges of achieving 3.5 million by the end of the year. Of the passengers, 210,019 were foreign-born Cubans, the majority of whom were US citizens, and 99,012 were Americans.
American Airlines
Only American Airlines and JetBlue operated flights to Cuba a year ago; Delta and United had not resumed operations since the pandemic stoppage in 2020.
“Delta made its return to the Cuban market in 2016 after a 55-year hiatus, but suspended service in March 2020 in response to COVID-19,” Delta wrote in a statement. “In line with continued strong demand, Delta remains committed to fully restoring its network by next summer, as shared on the September quarter 2022 financial results call.”
The building and maintenance of these routes reflects a somewhat shaky rapprochement between the U.S. and Cuba, as the current administration has attempted to take up where the Obama administration left off with family reunification measures and a people-to-people focus in tourism.
The U.S. resumed consular services at the U.S. Embassy in Havana as of 2023. For now, U.S. travelers can sign up for group trips to Cuba, but the people-to-people education trips have not yet been reinstated.
Conclusion
Naturally, U.S. citizens require a visa to gain entry to Cuba and that means travelers must procure a “Tarjeta del Turista,” or Cuban Tourist Card. The document gives a traveler permission to stay in Cuba for up to 30 days, with one extension available for an additional 30 days. They must also file online for their D’Viajeros (https://www.dviajeros.mitrans.gob.cu/inicio), another hurdle but one that is now much easier to execute through an online system that returns a bar code travelers can print out.
As U.S. relations with Cuba remain fluid with policies and requirements changing, and airlines adding their own sets of information procurement, it is best to check with a travel agent specializing in travel to Cuba or contact Cuba’s embassy: (202) 797 8518 – Ext. 600, before heading south.
Get Social