Airline expects Cuba flights by midyear

MIAMI -- American Airlines' Howard Kass is hopeful that the airline will be flying regularly scheduled service between the United States and Cuba within the first half of this year and said Miami will play a big role in resumption of commercial flights to the island.

U.S. and Cuban officials reached a preliminary agreement Dec. 16 to resume scheduled flights between the two countries for the first time in more than five decades as well as to continue the charter flights that have long served as the only bridge between the United States and Cuba.

Now the documents are being translated and the translations verified -- a process that's expected to take a few more weeks. When the agreement is released, the U.S. Department of Transportation will issue a notice instructing U.S. air carriers how to submit applications for Cuban routes.

The government is expected to approve up to 20 flights a day to Havana and 10 daily for nine other Cuban cities with international airports.

For competitive reasons, the airlines aren't being too forthcoming about the routes they want to serve. But Kass, American's vice president of regulatory affairs, said, "I would suspect that Havana would be oversubscribed."

If that's the case, there may be a few rounds of back and forth with the Department of Transportation as airlines make their case why they should be granted specific routes and flight frequencies. The Department of Transportation will ultimately make the decision, and it's possible that if there's not much competition among U.S. carriers for secondary Cuban markets, approval for those destinations might come sooner than for Havana.

Josefina Vidal, who heads the Cuban Foreign Relations Ministry's U.S. division, told the Cuban News Agency, or ACN, that once a final agreement is signed, then U.S. airlines must sign contracts with Cubana de Aviacion, Cuba's national carrier, and the Civil Aeronautics Institute. "It's a complex task, very technical, and the United States must complete various steps, bidding [on routes], because there are many airlines and all have equal rights in terms of market share," she said.

"We still believe we'll be flying scheduled service to Cuba within the first half of 2016," said Kass. "We're optimistic that [the Department of Transportation] will move swiftly to permit U.S. carriers to offer scheduled service."

American isn't the only airline interested in Cuba service. JetBlue, United Airlines, Southwest and Delta have all indicated they want to compete for flights.

"The interest is still standing. We're just waiting for the government," said Sarah Lora, Delta's spokesman for Latin America and the Caribbean.

She declined to say which routes Delta is interested in but said she expects the airline's Atlanta hub to be in its plans.

For American, the name of the game is Miami. "Miami is very important to us -- a big part of our plans," said Kass. "But we'll also be applying for other U.S. gateways."

Among other U.S. gateways that might be interesting to carriers are big cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Cuban charter flights also currently serve Fort Lauderdale and Tampa, so they also may figure in commercial airlines' plans.

With commercial service, passengers from other cities in the U.S. as well as abroad should be able to make "seamless connections" to their Cuba-bound flights, Kass said.

Miami International Airport is already the main embarkation and arrival point for Cuba charters. In 2015, 444,667 passengers departed from Miami International Airport on 4,283 charter flights bound for Cuba. Passengers going to and coming from Cuba through Miami International topped 907,000 last year, compared to 696,359 in 2014, according to the airport.

Taking a charter flight to Cuba often involves check-in four hours before departure, waiting in line behind luggage carts piled high with televisions and shrink-wrapped parcels and a cumbersome check-in process that involves queuing up numerous times.

Kass said check-in on regularly scheduled flights should improve. "If it works as we anticipated, the process of flying to and from Cuba will be similar to flying to any of our other Latin American destinations. There should be fewer formalities," he said.

With the embargo still in effect, passengers will still have to show they fall into one of 12 categories of travel authorized by the U.S. government, have a special license from Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or must be Cuban-Americans.

Business on 01/27/2016