Oakland Airport Authorized for Flights to Havana

Oakland Airport Authorized for Flights to Havana
By Stephanie Lee

In the latest sign of thawing relations between the United States and Cuba, Oakland International Airport has been authorized to offer nonstop flights to Havana. The airport announced Wednesday that as soon as December it will provide weekly charter flights to and from Jose Marti International Airport in partnership with Cuba Travel Services of Long Beach.

Oakland joins eight other airports nationwide, including Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth and Baltimore that were authorized in March to fly to the communist country. Previously, only Los Angeles, Miami and New York airports offered such service.

The United States’ historically strained relationship with Cuba began loosening in January, when the Obama administration announced that it would relax restrictions on academic and religious travel to the island nation. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, who pushed for the city’s airport to be authorized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to provide the flights, has long lobbied for more open interactions between the two countries.

Roundtrip tickets are expected to go on sale in early October for about $860, said Michael Zuccato, general manager of Cuba Travel Services, which will schedule the flights. The journey to Havana takes about 5 hours and 40 minutes; the return flight takes about 6 hours and 45 minutes.

Cuba Travel Services has yet to finalize which carriers it will use, Zuccato said. It is in talks with a number of airlines, including Spirit Airlines, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue, and will use aircraft that can hold up to 160 passengers, such as a Boeing 737.

Zuccato said Cuba Travel Services partnered with the Oakland airport because most of its would-be customers in the area reside in the East Bay. A spokesman for San Francisco International Airport said it is not planning to offer flights to Cuba.