US bans flights to all Cuban cities except Havana ⋆ Alertify

US bans flights to all Cuban cities except Havana

The Trump administration further limited the ability of U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba Friday, ordering American airlines to discontinue flights to any city there other than Havana.

U.S. carriers currently offer direct flights from various U.S. cities to nine destinations other than the Cuban capital, including Santa Clara, Santiago and Holguin. An order issued by the Transportation Department gave them 45 days to cease those operations. American, Delta and JetBlue are among the airlines offering flight to locations in Cuba.

In June, the administration effectively prohibited U.S.-based cruise ships from visiting Cuba, following a series of increasingly restrictive measures limiting the purposes for which American travel there is allowed.

While this technically prohibits US airlines from flying to any of the nine airports in Cuba other than Havana, in reality US airlines have only flown to five other airports.

American Airlines is by far the biggest US carrier to Cuba, and they also operate the most flights to non-Havana airports, though JetBlue has some flights as well and released a new travel waiver:

“Due to an updated U.S. policy regarding travel to Cuba, JetBlue will no longer operate to and from Camagüey, Holguín and Santa Clara as of December 10, 2019. As a result, we will offer a refund or full credit for customers traveling to/from the following cities on or after Tuesday, December 10, 2019:

Camagüey, Cuba (CMW)
Holguín, Cuba (HOG)
Santa Clara, Cuba (SNU)

“Alternatively, customers can choose to rebook travel on available flights operating before December 10, 2019 or be rebooked through Havana.”

Direct commercial flights and other expanded travel opportunities from the United States to Cuba came as part of the Obama administration’s opening to Cuba, which reopened diplomatic relations with Havana in 2015. Tourism remained prohibited, under the terms of economic sanctions in effect since 1962, but a number of categories of permitted travel were expanded. Many restrictions have now been reimposed by President Trump.

Klook.com