After a 5-year gap, direct flights between Los Angeles and Havana resume

For the first time in 5 years, direct flights between Los Angeles in the United States and Havana in Cuba have resumed.

Two months after United States President Barack Obama decided to relax travel curbs to Cuba, a non-stop flight from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) landed in Havana on June 30, 2009.

The first flight that left Los Angeles had 55 passengers aboard.

It was in July 2004 that the Administration of President George W Bush restricted travel to Cuba.

Cuba Travel Services, the charter-airline company based Long Beach, California, the United States, will offer a flight between Los Angeles and Havana every Tuesday.

The 5-hour flight takes off from the Los Angeles International Airport at 11 a.m. local time.

Cuba Travel Services uses a Boeing 737-800 aircraft, operated by the US-based Continental Airlines, on the route.

In a statement, Cuba Travel Services said the company was “excited” to start again non-stop flights out of Los Angeles International Airport to Havana. There is a very high demand for travel on the route since Cuban-Americans want to visit their families in Cuba, it added.

Most travel between Cuba and the United States had been prohibited since an embargo came into effect in 1962. However, in certain cases, Cuban-Americans have been allowed to visit Cuba under various policies.

The Bush Administration had limited travel to Cuba to once every three years. It also had narrowed definitions of who could accompany the Cuban-Americans as family members.
President Barack Obama withdrew those restrictions in April 2009.

However, travel restrictions will still apply to those Americans who do not have family in Cuba, and also to those who are not going to Cuba for business, news-gathering or study.

According to official data, an unknown number of Americans visit Cuba illegally every year by travelling through a third country like Canada or Mexico.

Cuba Travel Services said that it expected to “attract” some of the 100,000 Cuban-Americans residing in California – with 85,000 of them living in the Los Angeles area.

The company said in the statement that it also hoped to fly to Havana journalists, researchers, government officials, religious organisations, sports teams, and educational teams and such other groups which have been cleared for travel to Cuba.

Cuba Travel Services had operated air services between Los Angeles and Havana from 2000 to 2004, when it suspended the flights owing to the new restrictions imposed on travel by the Bush Administration.

More details on the travel to Cuba from the United States can be had from Cuba Travel Services’ website www.CubaTravelServices.com