One year has passed since the United States re-established its relations with Cuba after more than five decades. And, with this air travel connectivity was also established between the two countries. But the euphoria seems to be dying too soon.
The relations demonstrated that the once-forbidden country was on the verge of becoming the next hot destination for the travelers from the United States. Even airlines such as JetBlue Airways, American Airlines and Silver Airways launched flights to Cuba. However, the flights are being curtailed now.
JetBlue Airways has become the latest U.S. carrier to announce the reduction in its flights services to this South American island nation. It may be noted that JetBlue Airways was the first airline in the U.S. to launch commercial flights services to Cuba in more than 50 years after ties were restored between the two countries. The flights were launched in the month of August 2016. The airline has said that it will continue to operate flights on its existing routes to Cuba, but would use smaller aircraft starting from May 3, 2017.
JetBlue Airways is presently operating flights from Havana to Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and New York JFK with the help of its Airbus A321 aircraft, configured with 200 seats. The airline will replace Airbus A321 with the smaller Airbus A320 aircraft, which will offer a total of 150 seats, and continue to serve the existing routes. The airline is also conducting flights to other Cuban destinations as well, such as Holguin, Camagüey and Santa Clara. The airline has said that it will be deploying a 100-seat Embraer E-190 aircraft to serve these routes effective from May this year.
The deploying of smaller aircrafts to serve Cuban destinations would therefore mean that JetBlue Airways would be offering 300 less seats to conduct daily flights services. The airline has however declined to provide reasons for its change in strategy and decision. Media reports said that JetBlue Airways’ move has come just two months after American Airlines decided to cut capacity to Cuba in November last year. American Airlines said that it had dropped about a quarter of its schedule flights because of weak passenger demand.
PASSPORT & VISA PROCESSING