Flights from US to Havana bumped up

Cuban concept table of some related items

Access to Cuba from the US will be easier after a tentative government approval for eight commercial US airline to begin a total of 20 round-trip daily flights to Havana.

Advancing Barack Obama’s effort to normalize relations with Cuba, the approval will see flights from Atlanta; Charlotte, North Carolina; Houston; Los Angeles; Newark, New Jersey; New York; and four in Florida – Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando and Tampa with Alaska, American, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit and United Airlines.

While most Americans still cannot legally visit Cuba, the Obama administration has eased rules to the point where travellers are now free to design their own “people-to-people” cultural exchange tours with little oversight.

Cuba’s tourism industry has boomed since the December 2014 rapprochement with the United States. International visitors rose 17 per cent to a record 3.5 million in 2015, including a 77 per cent increase in American visitors to 161,000.

Back in May this year, Carnival Corp’s 704-passenger Adonia left from Miami to Cuba, after Cuba loosened its policy banning Cuban-born people from arriving to the country by sea. Cuban-born passengers were among those aboard.

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