United States-Holguin charter flights suspended
- Written by Lourdes Pichs Rodríguez
- Published in Holguin
- Hits: 1191
Charter flights from the United States to Cuban international airports, except for Havana, have been suspended since Tuesday, March 10, following the entry into force of a resolution announced by the U.S. State Department in January.
The measure affects nine Cuban air terminals, including the “Frank Pais” international airport of Holguin, where the last charter flight from the northern nation arrived on Monday.
Miguel Peña, general director of the Holguin airport, said that 14 charter flights with more than 1,460 passengers arrived each week to this terminal, whose destination was the eastern province and other neighboring municipalities.
In this regard he explained that, from now on, Cubans residing in the United States or nationals returning from a visit to that country will be forced to travel more than 730 kilometers from the Cuban capital to Holguin or travel through third countries.
According to Peña, variants are created to connect the Cuba’s center and east with the United States, such as the routes Miami-Nassau, Bahamas-Holguin and a similar one with a final destination to the City of Santa Clara, in the province of Villa Clara.
“For next March 19 we will receive the first planes at the Frank País International Airport, which will maintain two weekly frequency".
The director of the airport added that Bahamas Air operates flights to Havana destination and for its extension to the Cuba’s central and eastern region they will use Boeing-737-700 planes, with 138 seats.
On October 2019, the White House suspended commercial (regular) flights from the United States to several destinations in Cuba, with the exception of Havana, so that since December 10 the flights operated by JetBlue and American Airlines to Santa Clara, Camaguey and Holguin were cancelled.
Both unilateral measures reinforce the list of actions by the United States against our Cuba, with the aim of intensifying the economic, commercial and financial blockade, in its attempt to break the Cuban people.
