US plans to resume flights to Cuba this year

The Obama administration plans to complete an agreement with Cuba that will allow scheduled commercial flights to resume this year between the United States and the island nation for the first time in more than 50 years, officials said Friday.

The agreement, based on an understanding reached in December between the two governments, will allow American air carriers to offer 20 flights per day to Havana and 10 to each of the nine other Cuban cities with international airports. That is a substantial increase from the 10 to 15 charter flights currently available between the United States and Cuba.

Anthony Foxx, the transportation secretary, and Charles H. Rivkin, the top State Department official for business and economics, will travel to Havana Tuesday to sign the pact. The agreement represents the latest progress in President Obama's push to end decades of Cold War estrangement and begin to normalise relations between the two countries.

American air carriers will have 15 days to apply to the Department of Transportation for permits to offer the flights, and officials said they expected to decide by the summer which airlines could operate services from which cities.

Cuban carriers are unlikely to offer flights to the United States, the officials said, because they would have to obtain special licenses from the US government, and their planes could be subject to seizure based on civil lawsuits filed against Cuba in US courts.

The New York Times