U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx met with Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Wednesday (August 31) as the first scheduled commercial passenger flight from the United States to Cuba in more than half a century landed on the island.
The event has opened another chapter in the Obama administration’s efforts to improve ties and increase trade and travel with the former Cold War foe.
Foxx and Rodriguez met at the Foreign Ministry in Havana.
A JetBlue Airways Corp passenger jet arrived from Fort Lauderdale, Florida in the central Cuban city of Santa Clara. The route may be a commercial challenge, at least initially, but it will be the first of a plethora of new flights by various U.S. airlines to destinations on the Caribbean island.
Foxx was accompanied by JetBlue Chief Executive Officer Robin Hayes, other officials and journalists who were aboard the 150-seat plane.
Regular travellers, including some of Cuban descent, occupied nearly half the seats on the flight to Santa Clara, a city with a population of about 200,000 that is known for its monument to revolutionary leader Ernesto “Che” Guevara.
Cuba and the United States began normalizing relations in December 2014 after 18 months of secret talks and have since restored full diplomatic ties. The countries had been hostile for more than five decades, since Fidel Castro ousted U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in a 1959 revolution that steered the island on a communist course and made it a close ally of the Soviet Union.
Until Wednesday, passenger air links between Cuba and the United States were by chartered flights.
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