CET Statement: Additional Cuba Charter Flight Cancellations
JANUARY 10, 2020
WASHINGTON, DC -- Today the U.S. State Department announced that charter flights to cities in Cuba other than Havana will be suspended, following a 2019 measure that prohibited commercial carriers from servicing Cuban provincial airports. Charter companies were given 60 days to wind down services.
The policy change is regrettable and another step backwards, negatively affecting Cubans on the island and their families in the U.S.
“The Trump Administration’s ‘New Year's gift’ to the Cuban people highlights the cynical nature of the current policy and a serious disconnect between a stated goal of ‘supporting the Cuban people’ and a real time effect of harming them,” said Collin Laverty, President of Cuba Educational Travel.
The vast majority of travelers between the U.S. and Cuban cities outside of the capital are Cuban Americans visiting family members, carrying remittances or working with friends and relatives to develop small businesses.
“Cancelling these flights might take cents out of Cuban government accounts, but it takes dollars out of Cubans’ pockets, food of the table of Cuban families and once again tries to divide the Cuban family for domestic political gains,” added Laverty.
Travelers hoping to reach cities outside of Havana will now have to fly first to the capital and then spend hours and additional resources to reach their home cities.
“With the presidential election approaching in November 2020, we can expect more of these harmful measures aimed at scoring political points in Miami, while greatly harming the most vulnerable Cubans in the U.S. and Cuba,” said Laverty. “Decades of trying to divide the Cuban people for election results in South Florida and zero positive policy accomplishments apparently never gets old.”
