Silver Airways begins selling tickets for regularly scheduled flights to Cuba

Silver Airways begins selling tickets for regularly scheduled flights to
Cuba

Silver hopes to offer its first commercial flight to Cuba on Sept. 1
It has U.S. authorization to fly to nine Cuban cities outside Havana
Commercial flight from the U.S. to Cuba still need Cuban authorization
BY MIMI WHITEFIELD
mwhitefield@miamiherald.com

Angling to become the first airline to offer regularly scheduled service
from the United States to Cuba in more than half a century, Silver
Airways put tickets on sale Wednesday to nine destinations on the island.

Pending Cuban government approval, it plans to offer its first flight
from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to Santa Clara,
Cuba, at 7:45 a.m. on Sept. 1.

Silver will fly to Santa Clara, a city in Central Cuba, three times
weekly and is offering a discount of 33 percent off its base price for
passengers who book by June 30. With the discount, the fare for the
inaugural flight to Santa Clara would be $313.16.

American Airlines has already announced plans to offer its first
commercial service to Cuba — a flight from Miami International Airport
to Cienfuegos — on Sept. 7.

As part of the Obama administration's rapprochement with Cuba, last week
the Department of Transportation approved the requests of six U.S.
airlines to begin commercial service to nine Cuban cities outside Havana.

U.S. airlines have requested more than 300 weekly flights to Havana. DOT
has said it expects to authorize Havana routes by the end of summer but
the number has been capped at 140 weekly flights.

Silver, which has been operating routes within Florida and to the
Bahamas, plans to offer flights to nine Cuban cities on its 34-seat
planes. In addition to the Santa Clara flight, it hopes to operate
routes from Fort Lauderdale to Camagüey, Cienfuegos, and Holguín
starting in October, flights to Santiago and Cayo Coco in November and
routes to Varadero, Cayo Largo and Manzanillo beginning in December.

"We look forward to being the very first airline to provide service to
Cuba starting this September," said Silver Airways President and CEO
Sami Teittinen.

"In addition to serving the first nine destinations in Cuba from Fort
Lauderdale, we look forward to the DOT's approval of Silver's 10th
destination – Havana," said Silver's Chief Financial Officer Jason
Bewley. Silver wants to serve Havana from various Florida cities.
"Direct airline routes from Havana to West Palm Beach, Fort Myers, Key
West, and Jacksonville are critical to the large Cuban-American
populations in these important Florida communities," Bewley said.

Source: Competition heats up as airlines vie to offer the first
regularly scheduled service from the U.S. to Cuba | In Cuba Today -
http://www.incubatoday.com/news/article84004497.html