The air travel accord between the US and Cuba allows for up to 110 daily round-trip flights a day, but only a fraction will be to Havana.
The deal limits the number of daily flights to the capital to a maximum of 20, in addition to up to 10 round trips allowed to each of Cuba’s nine other international airports, said Thomas Engle, deputy assistant secretary for transportation affairs at the US State Department.
Scheduled flights are unlikely to start until the second quarter of 2016 as the approval process would take 2-3 months.
The deal would allow airlines from both countries to have commercial agreements such as codesharing or leasing planes to each other
With a limited number of flights to Havana, there is likely to be intense competition to secure convenient slots among the major US airlines.
American Airlines, United, JetBlue and Delta Air Lines are among the carriers which have expressed interest in restarting commercial scheduled services to Havana.
American Airlines said it hopes to start flying scheduled services by the end of June, said vice president of regulatory affairs Howard Kass, and will continue operating existing charter flights until then.
JetBlue also said it plans flights ‘from numerous US cities to multiple destinations in Cuba,’
"Interest in Cuba has reached levels not seen for a generation. We will review the terms of the agreement to understand how JetBlue can expand from charter service to regularly scheduled service," said JetBlue’s senior vice president airline planning, Scott Laurence.
