First US-Cuba Scheduled Passenger Flight Takes Off Wednesday Aug 31,2016

 

The first regularly scheduled commercial flight between the United States and Cuba in more than half a century departed on Wednesday Aug 31,2016, opening another chapter in the Obama administration's efforts to open trade and travel with the former Cold War foe.

 

The first of several U.S. carriers to begin serving Cuba in the coming months, JetBlue Airways Corp took off from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, en route to Santa Clara, a central city known for its monument to revolutionary leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, JetBlue Chief Executive Officer Robin Hayes, other officials and journalists were aboard the 150-seat Airbus A320.

Regular travelers, including some of Cuban descent, occupied nearly half the seats on a route that may be a commercial challenge, at least initially.

Lázaro Chavez, a 49-year-old pharmacist who lives in Miami and returns frequently to his homeland, said before boarding the plane he was taking the flight for two reasons. "One, I am going to see my family. Two, I want to be on this historic flight."

Note

Cuba and the United States began normalizing relations in December 2014 after 18 months of secret talks and have since restored full diplomatic ties.

The countries had been hostile for more than five decades, since Fidel Castro ousted U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in a 1959 revolution that steered the island on a communist course and made it a close ally of the Soviet Union.

Inaugural commercial flight from US lands in Cuba

The first regular commercial flight in more than 50 years from the US landed in  Cuba on Wednesday Aug 31,2016 , as the two nations took the latest step in their efforts to boost ties.

JetBlue Flight 387 landed in the central Cuban city of Santa Clara a little before 11:00 am (1500 GMT), about an hour after leaving Fort Lauderdale in southeastern Florida with 150 passengers on board.

The plane was greeted with a water cannon salute, an aviation tradition in which aircraft pass under arcs of water before flying to their destinations for the first time. Its departure from Florida was celebrated the same way.

The first two passengers off the plane carried US and Cuban flags as they descended the stairs onto the tarmac, where they symbolically exchanged the banners in a sign of friendship

The flight was the first of 110 expected daily trips connecting US cities to airports in the Communist-run island, many of them in or near tourism hotspots