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MIAMI, United States. – A Havanatur Celimar Agency promotional charter flight arrived Sunday at the Abel Santamaría International Airport in Santa Clara, with 108 passengers on board.
The event was covered by Prensa Latina, the official press agency, who published statements by Daniel Alejandro Hernández, Havanatur’s principal specialist.
According to Hernández, the goal of these flights is “to bridge the gap between Cuban families.”
The Havanatur specialist, a group closely linked to Cuba’s Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR, by its Spanish acronym), told the official outlet that promotional flights are part of “the bridges we aim to consolidate between Cubans who reside in the United States and their relatives in the island.”
Hernández stated, also, that “the flights will continue throughout the summer, and hopes that the demand for weekly flights grows in the immediate future as new charter agencies come into the picture.”
The first of those promotional flights sponsored by Havanatur, among others, arrived in Cuba this past July 19th at the Juan Gualberto Gómez International Airport (Varadero-Matanzas).
According to Prensa Latina, the promotion will include flights to Camagüey, Holguín and Santiago de Cuba.
Last June, the Cuban Airport Services Company (Empresa Cubana de Aeropuertos y Servicios S.A., ECASA, by its Spanish acronym) informed the public about the resumption of charter flights between the United States and several Cuban provinces that operate international airports.
On June 1st, 2022, the U.S. government eliminated restrictions on flights to Cuba that were imposed during Donald Trump’s presidency, which limited air operations exclusively to the airport in Havana.
This measure, proposed by the present Democratic administration, was recorded in Order 2022-6 of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT, by its English acronym), which cancelled all actions taken between 2019 and 2020 by the government of then president Donald Trump.
In addition to allowing charter flights, the new Order also extended authorization for regular air operations to international airports outside of the Cuban capital.
Last July 13th, DOT approved a request from American Airlines to reinstate its operations to several provinces in Cuba.
The four destinations chosen by American Airlines to renew its flights to cities outside of Havana were Varadero-Matanzas, Santa Clara (Villa Clara), Holguín and Santiago de Cuba.
Reuters, the British news agency, had access to an AA communique wherein it stated that flights to those four destinations improved “service and access between the United States and points outside of Havana, after more than two years of having those services suspended.”
American Airlines added that it “will meet the interests of the public by providing and maintaining the best possible connectivity with Cuba through its operations headquarters in Miami, thus posing substantial competition to other U.S airlines that service Cuba.”
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Fuente Cubanet.org
