Agreements on flights to US likely in coming months

Cuba: Agreements on flights to US likely in coming months
Posted: Wednesday, November 11, 2015 9:03 pm
Associated Press |

HAVANA — Cuban officials said Tuesday that negotiations on the
normalization of relations with the United States are likely to produce
agreements on regularly scheduled airline flights and three other areas
in the coming months.
U.S. officials have been appealing to Cuba to help produce concrete
results in the normalization talks in order to solidify President Barack
Obama's opening to Cuba announced late last year after more than 50
years of official hostility. Obama's strategy faces vehement opposition
from Cuban-American lawmakers and his administration is struggling to
make progress despite the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba and Cuba's own
restrictions on trade and commerce.
Josefina Vidal, Cuba's head of North American affairs, told reporters at
the Cuban Embassy in Washington that agreements on flights,
environmental protection, direct postal service and the fight against
drug trafficking are very likely by the end of the year.
"We are very close to the first agreements that we can announce in the
next few weeks," she said. "I am almost certain that by the end of the
year we can announce some results in those areas."
Gustavo Machin, deputy director for U.S. affairs at Cuba's Foreign
Ministry, told reporters in Havana that a deal on direct flights could
be struck in the "short term."
"I think this is one of the issues that we have advanced on most and on
which we are close to reaching an agreement," Machin said. "We are
talking of one month, two months, three months."
Both Vidal and Machin emphasized that airlines would have to make their
own deals with the individual government before flights could actually
begin.
Direct flights are seen as a potential game changer in U.S. travel to
Cuba, which has risen dramatically since Obama's announcement and
subsequent loosening of U.S. restrictions on travel to Cuba. Travelers
to Cuba from the U.S. must now take expensive and chaotic charter
flights that feature three-hour check-ins for a 45-minute flight and
draconian limits on baggage.

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