Six US Airlines to Begin Scheduled Flights to Cuba in Fall

The United States has approved six air carriers to start scheduled flights to Cuba in the fall of 2016, the US Department of Transportation announced in a release on Friday.

"As part of the Obama Administration’s efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) has approved six domestic airlines to begin scheduled flights between Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Chicago, Philadelphia and Minneapolis/St. Paul and Cuba as early as this fall," the release said.

The six airlines, including American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Silver Airways, Southwest Airlines, and Sun Country Airlines, will fly to the nine Cuban cities, the Transportation Department noted.

"Under the new arrangement, each country has the opportunity to operate up to ten daily roundtrip flights between the United States and each of Cuba’s nine international airports, other than Havana, for a total of 90 daily roundtrips," it added. "Longer term, the arrangement also provides for up to 20 daily roundtrip flights between the US and Havana."

A decision on the Havana routes will be announced later this summer, according to the Transportation Department.

US President Barack Obama announced in February that regular commercial airline service would be re-opened, possibly this year, reaching up to ten international airports on the Caribbean island nation.

In December 2014, Obama restored diplomatic ties with Cuba, more than a half century after the United States severed relations with the island nation following the 1959 Cuban revolution.

Since then, Cuba has been removed from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, and multiple agreements have been signed to facilitate trade, investment and tourism between the two nations.