(MENAFN- Gulf Times) The United States and Cuba have agreed to restore scheduled commercial airline service between the two countries for the first time in more than five decades, exactly a year after they started the process of normalising relations.
The latest step to restore US-Cuba ties after 54 years of hostility will not go into effect immediately but should eventually increase tourism and business on the communist-ruled island.
Once implemented, the agreement will allow US airlines to sell tickets on their websites for flights to Cuba, but they must first apply for permission from US regulators to fly specific routes.
Charter flights operated by US carriers already connect the countries.
The United States and Cuba have agreed to allow 110 round-trip flights on US airlines to Cuba per day, according to Thomas Engle, deputy assistant secretary for transportation affairs at the US State Department.
That includes 20 flights to Havana and 10 to each of the other nine international airports in Cuba.
He said no date has been set for final signing of the aviation agreement, but no issues were expected to stop it.
A group that promotes US-Cuba trade said there was a 60-to-90 day process during which US-based air carriers will submit proposed routes, suggesting scheduled flights would not begin until the first few months of 2016 at the earliest.
The decision to restore ties, made by US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro a year ago, in part reflected Washington's judgment that its policy of isolating Havana politically, economically and diplomatically had failed.
While US officials still oppose Cuba's lack of political rights, Obama concluded these goals could be better served through engagement.
Although the agreement will eventually make it easier to travel back and forth between the countries, the US ban on general tourism to the Caribbean island remains in force.
US travellers still must meet at least one of 12 criteria to visit, such as being Cuban-American or taking part in educational tours or journalistic activity.
"We continue to have differences with the Cuban government, but we raise those issues directly, and we will always stand for human rights and the universal values that we support around the globe," Obama said in a written statement. "Change does not happen overnight, and normalisation will be a long journey."
The United States broke diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961, two years after Fidel Castro ousted US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in a revolution that steered the island on a leftist course and made it a close ally of the Soviet Union.
For decades, Washington's policy was to isolate the island.
Since last year's detente, the countries have restored diplomatic ties and reopened their embassies.
Obama has also taken steps to encourage closer business ties with the island.
However, the longstanding US trade embargo on the island remains in place and the Republican-controlled Congress has resisted Obama's calls to lift it.
Cuba's human rights record still draws criticism from Washington, and Castro's government has made clear the diplomatic opening does not mean Havana plans to change its one-party political system.
Cuba's embassy in Washington said in a statement on the airline deal that the countries reiterated their commitment to flight security and to protecting civil aviation "from acts of unlawful interference".
Any planes landing in the US will have to meet US safety standards, so any old Russian planes in the Cuban fleet will likely only fly domestically within Cuba.
Under the deal, airlines from both countries will be able to make commercial agreements such as sharing flight codes and leasing planes to each other, it said.
New York-based JetBlue Airways Corporation, which already operates charter flights to the island, said in a statement it plans to apply to schedule service once it has fully reviewed the terms of the aviation deal.
"Interest in Cuba has reached levels not seen for a generation," its senior vice president for airline planning, Scott Laurence, said in the statement.
Other US airlines € American Airlines Group, Delta Air Lines and United Continental Holdings € have all expressed interest in scheduling flights to Cuba.
Obama relaxed travel restrictions to Cuba earlier this year.
That has led to a boom in US citizens' visits to Cuba, which are up 71% this year, with 138,120 Americans arriving over the first 11 months.
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