Foreign Policy Blogs

Los Angeles to Havana, direct

Photo from flyuscuba.com

Heads-up: non-stop flights from Los Angeles Airport (LAX) to Havana opened today. Tickets are available through Cuba Travel Services Inc. for a healthy $889 per adult, plus tax. These flights were available briefly between 2000 and 2004, but were suspended indefinitely when the Bush administration tightened regulations on travel to Cuba that year. “You’ve waited long enough,” reads the banner on the Cuba Travel Services website.

More than 40,000 Cuban Americans are estimated to live in the greater Los Angeles area, including yours truly. This flight will draw more than just those, however, since it is the only one of its kind departing from the West.

The first flight leaves in about one hour (there’s still time!).

More details here.

 

Author

Melissa Lockhart Fortner

Melissa Lockhart Fortner is Senior External Affairs Officer at the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles, having served previously as Senior Programs Officer for the Council. From 2007-2009, she held a research position at the University of Southern California (USC) School of International Relations, where she closely followed economic and political developments in Mexico and in Cuba, and analyzed broader Latin American trends. Her research considered the rise and relative successes of Latin American multinationals (multilatinas); economic, social and political changes in Central America since the civil wars in the region; and Wal-Mart’s role in Latin America, among other topics. Melissa is a graduate of Pomona College, and currently resides in Pasadena, California, with her husband, Jeff Fortner.

Follow her on Twitter @LockhartFortner.