Direct Commercial Flights To Havana.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced yesterday that they have tentatively approved eight U.S. airlines to provide commercial flights to Havana, Cuba, with final decisions expected later this summer.

Within 90 days of DOT’s final decision, every American will be able to use a U.S. carrier’s normal website to purchase airfare. Most airlines plan to begin offering flight services this fall and winter. Gone will be the regulatory hurdles of booking expensive charter flights.

While this is great news to a lot of travelers, you should expect this small nation to experience a sudden and severe bout of growing pains.

Carol and I were having lunch with Royal Caribbean International yesterday and they expect to have Havana as a port stop for the winter Caribbean cruise season.  However, she cautioned, their infrastructure is nowhere’s near ready for the onslaught of Americans headed their way. Evidently the ports need significant updating, and the country could currently no sooner handle a crowd of thousands hopping off of a cruise ship than the man in the moon.

So, while Cuba is certainly on the bucket list of The Roaming Boomers®, we’re going to take a wait and see approach for a bit.
 
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