jspira

We knew this was coming but it's nonetheless exciting news as commercial service to Cuba gets close enough to think about packing one's bags.

The interesting development will be who gets the routes! Let the speculation begin.

Alaska, American, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, and United Apply to Offer Scheduled Service to Cuba
Above appeared in FBT, where I serve as Ed.Dir.

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This is the best thread. There are so many other thread in the individual airline flyertalk forums.

Can someone summarize who applied for what and how many routes will be awarded?

Is Cubana flying to anywhere in the U.S.? If so, what plane? Tu204?

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http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/12/politi...ights-to-cuba/

ROCAT

USA today broke it down fairly well on the US side: http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel...want/81231586/

As for Cubana, no one has said if they are or not flying into the US. As for what aircraft it would use I would guess their leased A320s or An-158s.

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http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alask...vana-cuba.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...a-flights.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...a-service.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...a-service.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/jetbl...a-service.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/south...a-service.html

AS LAX-HAV 2 737-900ER
AA To Havana:
Miami – 10 daily frequencies
Charlotte – one daily frequency
Dallas/Fort Worth – one daily frequency
Los Angeles – one weekly frequency
Chicago – one weekly frequency

Also from Miami:
Two daily frequencies to Santa Clara
Two daily frequencies to Holguin
Two daily frequencies to Varadero
One daily frequency to Camaguey
One daily frequency to Cienfuegos
----
DL JFK-HAV
ATL-HAV
MIA-HAV #1
MIA-HAV #2
MCO-HAV
----
UA
8 weekly - EWR-HAV
1 weekly - IAH-HAV
1 weekly - IAD-HAV
1 weekly - ORD-HAV

Total 11 weekly frequencies requested

All on 737 aircraft
---

FLL-HAV - 4x
FLL-CMW - 1x
FLL-HOG - 1x
FLL-SCU - 1x

JFK-HAV - 2x
MCO-HAV - 2x
TPA-HAV - 2x
EWR-HAV - 1x
BOS-HAV - 1x
---
WN
FLL-HAV 6 Daily
TPA-HAV 2 Daily
MCO-HAV 1 Daily
VRA-FLL 2 Daily
SNU-FLL 1 Daily

All HAV flights -800.

jspira

Thanks!

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I'll play FAA. Here's my awards for route authority

10 daily flights from other Cuban cities

AA Two daily frequencies to Santa Clara (DENIED)
AA Two daily frequencies to Holguin (1 APPROVED, 1 DENIED)
AA Two daily frequencies to Varadero
AA One daily frequency to Camaguey
AA One daily frequency to Cienfuegos
B6 - FLL-CMW - 1x Camaguey (1 DENIED)
B6 - FLL-HOG - 1x Holguin
B6 - FLL-SCU - 1x Santiago
WN - VRA-FLL 2 Daily Varadero
WN - SNU-FLL 1 Daily Santa Clara

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I'll play FAA. 20 Havana flights

Applications:
[I]
AS LAX-HAV 2 737-900ER (**APPROVED)
AA To Havana:
Miami – 10 daily frequencies (***APPROVED 3 frequencies)
Charlotte – one daily frequency (*APPROVED)
Dallas/Fort Worth – one daily frequency (*APPROVED)
Los Angeles – one weekly frequency
Chicago – one weekly frequency


----
DL JFK-HAV (*APPROVED)
ATL-HAV (*APPROVED)
MIA-HAV #1 (*APPROVED)
MIA-HAV #2
MCO-HAV
----
UA
8 weekly - EWR-HAV (* 7 weekly APPROVED)
1 weekly - IAH-HAV (APPROVED)
1 weekly - IAD-HAV (APPROVED)
1 weekly - ORD-HAV (APPROVED)

Total 11 weekly frequencies requested

All on 737 aircraft
---
B6
FLL-HAV - 4x (*APPROVED 2)


JFK-HAV - 2x (*APPROVED)
MCO-HAV - 2x (*1 APPROVED)
TPA-HAV - 2x
EWR-HAV - 1x
BOS-HAV - 1x (*APPROVED)
---
WN
FLL-HAV 6 Daily (**APPROVED 2 daily + 4 weekly)
TPA-HAV 2 Daily (*APPROVED)
MCO-HAV 1 Daily


All HAV flights -800.

invisible

I doubt that Cubana and other state company's will ever fly to US due to the outstanding court cases.

MSPeconomist

UA is surprisingly conservative in only requesting 11 flights per week to Cuba.

readywhenyouare

I would say that UA's hubs probably have the weakest demand for travel to Cuba. AA has a hub at MIA and both DL and WN are huge in Florida. UA has the least amount of service to Florida by a substantial margin.

StartinSanDiego

Moderator Note: I'm going to move this thread to the Caribbean forum. Please follow it over there.

SJOGuy

There's a dedicated Cuba forum that might be an even better place for this.

djjaguar64

That's good as we need some competition for Air Canada, and the prices will come down.

Reindeerflame

I was in Cuba last week, and can pretty much confirm what I heard from a person on another flight who is knowledgeable about Cuban airports. Namely, that Havana's airport does not have the current capacity to handle any significant increase in flights in its current configuration. There may be some additional capacity at other airports.

We flew into Santa Clara, but left Cuba from Havana/Marti. There are no jetways. The airport appears to have 3 sets of landing stairs, and 2 articulated buses to haul passengers from the tarmac to the terminal. The international waiting room had 2 desks from which flights could be processed. The buses were used alternatively to take people to the planes and pick them up from arriving planes: sometimes multiple trips were needed, with each trip taking about 10 minutes to complete. At one occasion, the bus made an extra trip just to take 2 people who had missed the first call for passengers. Later, a bus carried the 10 or so people in first class on our flight out to the plane all by themselves. As a result, our flight left about 90 minutes late. Meanwhile, several arriving planes were waiting for a parking space (and eventual passenger unloading).

A reason was also given for why Cuban charter flights are quite expensive, namely that the Cuban government charges extremely high landing fees, few, if any, of which are used for airport improvements, but rather end up in the equivalent of the Cuban government's general fund.

The viewpoint provided by the informed observer was that it doesn't matter how many flights are approved between the U.S. and Cuba -- that few of those will be implemented unless a major construction program is first undertaken at the Havana Airport, which could take years, especially if the Cuban bureaucracy is loathe to cede responsibility for the airport to a private airport operator or to forego the general revenues it now receives.