U.S-Cuba Policy: U.S. Approves 8 New Airports For Flights To Cuba

WASHINGTON -- Eight new airports have been given permission to schedule charter flights to and from Cuba.

Customs and Border Protection officials say charter flights to Cuba can now be scheduled from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and international airports in Baltimore, Dallas/Fort Worth, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Tampa, Atlanta and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Previously, flights were only permitted from Los Angeles, Miami and New York.

Access to flights to the communist island nation will still be limited to people who meet certain travel requirements, including people from Cuba and those traveling for educational purposes or with religious groups.

The decision to allow eight new airports to schedule flights to Cuba is part of a broad effort to reach out to the Cuban people announced by President Barack Obama earlier this year.

Comments

[negotiatethis]

10:49 AM on 03/15/2011

Open Cuba travel is on the horizon. Until then, there are several ways to visit Cuba legally. I recommend it. Once the floodgates are open, finding authentic Cuban Culture will be difficult. http://talkingcuba.wordpress.com/

[David Rozgonyi]

03:33 AM on 03/11/2011

What a petty, ridiculous little embargo we've got going there. I guess the embargo is better than the running-man (if you can swim it you win a passport!) cuban immigration game we hold so dear.

[matthewnsea]

01:38 AM on 03/10/2011

Why do Republicans hate America? Why do the "Government should do nothing" tea bagging crowd support Government telling us where we can and can't go? Government intervention when it fits their cause.

[biskitdaddy]

04:20 PM on 03/09/2011

Big whoop, this doesn't change anything for the masses. A 42 year embargo has done NOTHING to force Castro out of power. People from every other nation in the world can freely travel to Cuba except us which is stupid.

[Max Shaw]

03:44 PM on 03/09/2011

Cant wait to wear my white linen pants, smoke a cohiba and down a mojito.

[nastybastard]

02:52 PM on 03/09/2011

While living in Jamaica - -I had to leave the country every 90 days - went to a few island close by - -and Cuba was one of them - -WOW.
Very pretty - -people were very nice.
Can't get back in now that you need a passport - once it is stamped - -you have broken american Laws and could go to jail.
I went to Cuba 3 times in a yr and a 1/2 - - the people treated me very well - even though I am an American -

[InYourWorld]

02:21 PM on 03/10/2011

They don't stamp American passports in Cuba. It's so easy and cheap to get to Havana from most places in in CA.

[nastybastard]

04:18 PM on 03/10/2011

A bit nervous about going over from Jamaica now - America has changed so much - -don't know if they could toss me in the clink for the rest of my life for such a heinous act as traveling to Cuba - but I know the US would if they could.

[Gail Cerridwen]

03:47 AM on 03/09/2011

We're the only country in world that's been doing this embargo cuz Fidel's revolution was taken very personally by us (which is also maybe why we're still so ignorant about the country and its history). If we're convinced communistic systems fail, why do we feel the need to forbid trade w/ them?
Cuba used to be a land and people that American companies very happily exploited. The majority of embittered Miami "exiles" fled Cuba at the revolution cuz they were the two percent who owned everything prior.

If the most powerful nation in the world was so intent on destroying Castro and Cuba's success that it repeatedly tried to assassinate Castro, pressed other nations to also embargo the nation, tried military and other forms of sabotage, it wouldn't be the brightest thing to attempt open elections, would it? (Don't we have a history of sabotaging such things even in countries far away?) I've long thought Cuba never became a democratic socialism only cuz of our tampering.

[paxatman]

01:19 PM on 03/11/2011

Perhaps it is because we are the most redneck country run by redneck republicans.

[Soul Call]

12:57 AM on 03/09/2011

Yup.make sure those RELIGIOUS groups get in there....

[BurritoT]

12:47 AM on 03/09/2011

Still laughable - allow for full relations now! It should be as easy to travel to Cuba as Mexico or Canada.

[sviolette]

12:58 AM on 03/09/2011

It is just as easy if you can walk on water.

[johnfromojai]

12:39 AM on 03/09/2011

Please work for publicly funded elections. The only reason that Obama maintains the embargo is for the same reason he follows orders from AIPAC; to get reelected. The Cuban community in Florida has lots of financial and political power. The people of Cuba and the Americans who want to travel there are the losers.

[waldopepper]

11:26 PM on 03/08/2011

Amazing that in the land of the free so many allow the Government to dictate what can and cannot be done.

[ModerateVoiceofReason]

11:09 PM on 03/08/2011

When Fidel Castro finally takes the dirt nap.
What's left of communism in Cuba will fall sooooo fast!
I envision that a new Hard Rock Cafe, Havana will open within two years.

[GoldenGirl2500]

10:56 PM on 03/08/2011

And Marco Rubio is having a hissy fit he was not able to protect Miami's monopoly on Cuban flights out of Florida.

Ol' Rubio didn't care how much trouble it was for his fellow Cubans to get from far flung Florida points to Miami. Guess his masters, Miami business interests, will have to take him to the woodshed for not protecting their statewide monopoly of those Cuba flights. LOL!!!!!

[kyeshinka]

10:54 PM on 03/08/2011

I'm just happy that Cuban nationalists in Miami are ticked off. It's awful that a small minority can prevent two countries from establishing relationships.

[StillIRise]

11:35 PM on 03/08/2011

Fanned!

[abbraxus]

10:41 PM on 03/08/2011

The U.S. would never trade with a communist country... that is unless they held a trillion dollars of our debt.

[sviolette]

01:02 AM on 03/09/2011

You're still fighting a war that we already won. Communism isn't a threat to us any more.

The lack of jobs is the war we should be fighting.