As Cuba mourns the loss of Fidel Castro, for so many years the country’s head of state, other big changes are taking place on the Caribbean island in the run-up to the funeral of ‘el comandante’ scheduled on Sunday.
The first scheduled passenger service operated by a US airline in 50 years landed in Havana on Monday of this week.
Other flights to smaller Cuban cities had previously been operated, but the Havana connection launched by American Airlines represented a major step forward.
A JetBlue service quickly followed the American inaugural into the Cuban capital, and both Delta Airlines and United are also now back in Havana.
Four other US carriers – Alaska Airlines, Frontier, Spirit and Southwest – are all expected to be operating services into Havana by early next month (January).
All-cargo connections are also to be launched into Cuba. In July, it was confirmed that the US Department of Transportation had awarded cargo flight rights to Cuba to FedEx.
FedEx will launch daily Monday through Friday services between Miami, Florida and Matanzas, Cuba, on January 15 next year.
These new connections were made possible by the signing of a US-Cuban agreement on February 16 that allowed for the re-establishment of scheduled air service between the two countries.
Yet, these nascent aviation connections may already be under threat. US president-elect Donald Trump has said that he would put a stop to closer US-Cuban relations if “Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people and the US as a whole”.
However the current Obama administration has indicated that it believes it would be difficult for Trump to turn the clock back.
An administration spokesperson said that the benefits of the 110 flights a day expected to be operated soon to Cuba from the US would be missed.
