ZCZC
BFF-09
US-CUBA-POLITICS-AVIATION
US to end scheduled flights to all Cuban airports except Havana
WASHINGTON, Oct 26, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The United States will suspend all
scheduled flights to Cuba except to its capital Havana, authorities said
Friday, as US President Donald Trump pushes to dismantle the rapprochement
begun by his predecessor Barack Obama.
The suspension, which goes into effect December 10, was announced by the
Department of Transportation and affects nine airports on the island nation.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asked the Transportation Department for
the suspension as a means to “further the administration’s policy of
strengthening the economic consequences to the Cuban regime for its ongoing
repression of the Cuban people and its support for (President) Nicolas Maduro
in Venezuela.”
The Trump administration accuses Cuba of aiding and abetting crisis-wracked
Venezuela, which is Havana’s closest ally.
Cuba rejected the measure and vowed that it would fail, with Foreign
Minister Bruno Rodriguez stating that “concessions will not be taken from
us.”
Trump has moved to roll back steps toward normal relations and business
ties that were established under Obama, who made moves to diminish five
decades of Cold War tension and sanctions between the neighbors.
American, Delta and JetBlue airlines will be affected by the deadline to
halt operations to destinations such as Santiago de Cuba, the country’s
second-largest city, as well as Camaguey and the sprawling mega-resort of
Varadero.
Cash-strapped Cuba depends heavily on tourism earnings to fund its
government, the only one-party Communist state in the Americas. Havana
already has trimmed its 2019 tourism target by 15 percent to 4.3 million
visitors.
The United States still maintains its economic embargo on Havana, which
only can be ended by the US Congress.
But it has allowed exceptions, such as cruise ship visits, which must have
an educational underpinning in order to go to the island.
Some 900,000 tourists visited the island on cruise ships last year, and
almost 40 percent were American, according to official data.
The charter flights on which many Cuban-Americans travel to Cuba from Miami
are not affected by the change.
Commercial flights to Cuba began under the Obama administration in 2016.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1021 hrs