The United States and Cuba have agreed to resume commercial airline service between the two countries for the first time in more than half a century, the U.S. state department announced Thursday.
"This arrangement will continue to allow charter operations and establish scheduled air service, which will facilitate an increase in authorized travel, enhance traveler choices and promote people-to-people links between the two countries," the state department said, according to CNN.
This deal is the result of months of negotiations between the two countries and paves the way for U.S. airlines to eventually sell flights to Cuba directly from their websites for greater tourism which is still barred by U.S. law.
Commercial flights between the two had been suspended for decades even after the Cold War ended, though charter flights, which are expensive and difficult to book, still remained intact, according to CBC News.
The decision was praised by members of the airline industry.
"Interest in Cuba has reached levels not seen for a generation," said JetBlue Senior VP of Airline Planning Scott Laurence. "We will review the terms of the agreement to understand how JetBlue can expand from charter service to regularly scheduled service. Our years of experience in Cuba and unmatched customer experience positions JetBlue as the carrier of choice for travel to Cuba."
American Airlines is also looking to take advantage of the opportunity the decision has presented and is planning to submit a U.S.-Cuba service proposal to the U.S. Department of Transportation in hopes of introducing scheduled service in 2016.
This deal follows President Barack Obama's earlier decision to relax travel restrictions to Cuba, reported Reuters. Since then, Cuba has seen a boom in U.S. citizens visiting the island with a recorded 138,120 Americans arriving over the first 11 months.
