U.S. Citizens Will Once Again Be Allowed To Visit Cuba

The Obama administration opened up travel to Cuba. President Trump tried to roll that back. Now President Biden will reinstate much of what the Obama administration tried to do eight years ago.

The Biden administration is restoring flights to Cuban cities other than Havana and reestablishing a family reunification program suspended for years, following recommendations of a long-anticipated review of U.S. policy toward Cuba, senior administration officials told McClatchy and the Miami Herald on Monday.

Group travel for educational or professional exchanges is a farce, but experience shows these are restrictions in name only.

The Biden administration will lift the cap on family remittances that was put in place by the Trump presidency. Independent Cuban entrepreneurs will be allowed to accept payment. Your next website may be designed by a Cuban doctor, and your partner may open an Etsy store.

It will be easier for people in the U.S. to visit family in the rest of the country if flights are allowed beyond Havana.

When I wrote about the new opportunity for airlines to lose money when travel to Cuba was re-established, I mentioned that it was possible to fly anywhere that travelers are allowed to go and fill planes at high prices. Before Trump took office, American cut 23% of its Cuba schedule.

• Pretty much all traffic for these flights will originate in the US. There’s almost no customer base to support these flights in Cuba.
• Planes will be filled predominantly with leisure travel. Cuba isn’t a strong business destination.
• Infrastructure in Cuba, from the airport to hotels, is wholly inadequate to match an aviation boom and influx of tourists.
• Havana is an expensive airport to operate at, with costs that make Miami look like Branson, Missouri.

Fishing on the Malecón in Havana