The U.S. and Cuba agreed to restore direct, commercial flights between the two countries for the first time in over half a century.
In a statement, the State Department said that the arrangement would “facilitate an increase in authorized travel, enhance traveler choices, and promote people-to-people links between the two countries.”
While flying to Cuba will become much easier and presumably less expensive, leisure tourist travel to the island is still illegal, and U.S. citizens are still only permitted to travel there for one of 12 approved reasons, including professional, educational, religious and humanitarian purposes.
U.S. airlines quickly voiced support for the news, with American Airlines, the country’s largest charter operator to Cuba, saying it would submit a U.S-Cuba service proposal to the Department of Transportation in hopes of beginning scheduled service as soon as possible.
