The Baltimore airport is one of eight that the Obama administration has opened for travel to Cuba, making direct charter flights available from the Washington region for the first time in a half century.
The move also opens up the South, mid-Atlantic and Midwest to Cuban travel. Miami, Los Angeles and New York were previously the only cities offering charter flights to the Communist country, with Miami carrying the bulk of the business.
Paul J. Wiedefeld, executive director of Baltimore Washington Thurgood Marshall International, said in a statement the airport’s inclusion in this latest loosening of restrictions against Cuba will have an impact on the entire Washington region.
“This service has the potential to benefit many institutions and organizations throughout our region,” he said.
BWI spokesman Jonathan Dean said this was a “first step” for the airport, which doesn’t expect to begin offering chartered flights until late this year. He added Cuban authorities also need to issue a similar approval and flight operators must also be approved before flights are available. Most air travel to Cuba was stopped in 1961, when the U.S. severed diplomatic relations in response to Fidel Castro nationalizing American businesses there.
Customs and Border Protection officials are also allowing charter flights to Cuba from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and international airports in Dallas/Fort Worth, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Tampa, Atlanta and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The expansion is part of a outreach effort that President Barack Obama began this year.
Last year, travel to Cuba was extended to Cuban-Americans. In January, the president expanded travel for religious, academic and journalistic trips.
But even with the lifted restrictions, most Americans can’t travel to Cuba without what are called “People-to-People” travel licenses, which are difficult to get, said Tom Popper, director at the Insight Cuba travel company in New York.
He added the rate at which Cuban travel companies begin opening offices in the District depends on the demand. In Maryland there were roughly 12,000 Cuban Americans by 2006, the most recent year that U.S. Census figures are available. In Virginia there were less than 17,000. Cubans in both states accounted for less than 1 percent of the population.
But Jim Dinegar, president and CEO of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, said staking out BWI now could be a business opportunity down the road.
“You start to cut a path,” he said. “When and if the normalization of relations with Cuba returns, the Greater Washington Region, through BWI, will have a running start.”
