First commercial flight in more than 50 years from US lands in Cuba

The first commercial flight between the United States and Cuba in more than a half century landed in the central city of Santa Clara on Wednesday, re-establishing regular air service severed at the height of the Cold War.

First commercial flight in more than 50 years from US lands in Cuba

The first commercial flight between the United States and Cuba in more than a half century landed in the central city of Santa Clara on Wednesday, re-establishing regular air service severed at the height of the Cold War.

The flight of JetBlue 387 opens a new era of US-Cuba travel, with about 300 flights a week connecting the US with an island cut off from most Americans by the 55-year-old trade embargo on Cuba and formal ban on US citizens engaging in tourism on the island.

"Seeing the American airlines landing routinely around the island will drive a sense of openness, integration and normality," said Richard Feinberg, author of the new book Open For Business: Building The New Cuban Economy.

"That has a huge psychological impact," he said.

The restart of commercial travel between the two countries is one of the most important steps in President Barack Obama's two-year-old policy of normalising relations with the island.

Historians disagree on the exact date of the last commercial flight but it appears to have been after Cuba banned incoming flights during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Secretary of state John Kerry said on Twitter that the last commercial flight was in 1961.

US transportation secretary Anthony Foxx, JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes and a specially selected five-member crew of Cuban-Americans were slated to be on board the 150-seat Airbus A320.

"It's a positive step and a concrete contribution to the process of improving relations between the two countries," said Cuba's vice minister of transportation Eduardo Rodriguez.

Neta Rodriguez, a 62-year-old South Florida resident born in Havana, checked in on Wednesday morning with her daughter, son-in-law and three grandsons for a visit to family in Santa Clara and Havana, the Cuban capital.

She said she appreciated the 200 dollar price and the ability to book online instead of visiting a charter office more than the historic nature of the flight.

US travel to Cuba is on track to triple this year to more than 300,000 visitors in the wake of the 2014 declaration of detente.

Cuba's cash-starved centrally planned economy has been bolstered by the boom in US visitors, along with hundreds of thousands of travellers from other nations hoping to see Cuba before more Americans arrive.

Commercial flights are expected to greatly increase the number of American visitors.

Many of the air routes are currently used by expensive charter flights that are largely expected to go out of business with the advent of regularly scheduled service from the US.

Hundreds of thousands of Cuban-born Americans fly to the island each year with the chaotic, understaffed charter companies.

These require four-hour check-in waits and charge high rates for any luggage in excess of restrictive baggage allowances.

Americans without ties to Cuba have found it hard to negotiate the charters, most of which do not accept online bookings or help travellers navigate the federal affidavit still required for US travellers to Cuba.

Cuban officials insist the continuing US ban on tourism will limit the impact of commercial flights to Cuba.

But some experts believe the drastic reduction in the difficulty of flying to Cuba could turn the surge in US visitors into a tidal wave.

Americans are allowed to visit the island on "people-to-people" cultural and educational visits, among other reasons.

Americans who fit one of 12 categories will now be able to fill out a federal affidavit by clicking a box online and, in many cases, buy their Cuban tourist visa near the check-in counters of US airports.

Americans will be able to fly within weeks direct from cities including Chicago, Philadelphia and Minneapolis, Miami and Fort Lauderdale to eight Cuban cities and two beach resorts.

The final announcement of routes to Havana, which could be announced on Wednesday and start before December, is slated to include flights from Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles and Houston, among others.

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