A historic deal has been reached this week after three days of talks in Washington that opens the way for US airlines to negotiate with Cuba's government to operate up to 20 routes a day to Havana and ten too each of Cuba's other nine major airports, according to State Department officials. These will be in addition to the current limited charter programmes that have been serving the countries while hefty sanctions have been in place.
Cuba is a strategically important destination for the Chinese government as it was the first Latin American country to recognise the People’s Republic of China and to establish trade relations and China is currently Cuba’s second largest trading partner after Venezuela with bilateral trade of bilateral of over $1.3 billion in 2014.
US Treasury and Commerce Department officials are moving quickly to tear down regulatory barriers to American citizens’ ability to travel, conduct financial dealings and export products to Cuba, ending a 54-year-old American trade embargo against Cuba.
Air France began serving Havana in 1998, and has since become the leading airline between Cuba and Europe, supporting tourism development on the island.
These additional destinations raise to 23 the number of routes resumed or launched by Iberia in the past year, since agreements were reached with employee unions on cost reductions and productivity hikes last February and March, and the implementation of Iberia’s Future Plan.
