
News is out that the US Department of Transportation and Cuban officials have signed an agreement that has been in the works for months to allow US commercial flights to land in Cuba. This is a great development, and will make it much easier and more cost effective to travel to Cuba. Right now, only approved charter flights can go directly from the US to Cuba, and only fly into Havana. Cuba has a total of 10 airports that are subject to the agreement, so the choices of where to fly will be greater as well.
What does this mean? Can you book a flight tomorrow to Cuba on a major US carrier? No. The agreement sets in motion a process of airlines applying for the routes with the US DOT, approval, and then finally implementation. This will take several months. But this means there is a timetable in place now and it requires initial applications to be submitted by early March, with initial replies by mid-March. This is just the first step in the process, but the process is now moving forward, which is the important thing.
Caravan-Serai currently offers tours to Cuba that fall under the guidelines for allowed travel to Cuba by the US government. Our tours have weekly departures, but you must book well in advance. Call us for more information or visit our Cuba page on our website.