Newly Created Weekly Flight from New York to Havana Reunites Families and Leads Entrepreneurs to Cuba

Americans arrived 29.5 percent in greater numbers to the island, and the British were those who increased visits the most by 30.6 percent.

Since last month, the scene repeats itself every Tuesday: Dozens of Cubans, anxious, wait for relatives and friends at Terminal 2 of the Havana International Airport. The departure point, however, is not the expected Miami, from which daily flights leave to the Cuban capital, but rather New York City, the city which started running direct flights only last March 17 — leveraged by the resumption of relations between the U.S. and Cuba. Among the passengers are many Cubans who live mostly in New Jersey and some Americans guys.

Chartered by Cuba Travel Services and operated by Sun Country Airlines, the SY8890 takes off from the airport that bears the name of John Fitzgerald Kennedy — precisely the American president who imposed the embargo on the island — and arrives in Havana around 6:30 pm (local time). Long before that, the terminal’s exit begins to fill up. Last Tuesday, siblings Lauren and Robin Gonzalez talked apprehensively, while awaiting the arrival of their grandmother, Maria. She, who has lived for more than seven years in the American city, has not seen her grandchildren for more than three years. Just like María, many Cubans over 50 years illegally crossed the ocean to help their children, who went to try life in the neighboring country years earlier during the so-called “special period” — the years after the fall of the USSR, when Cuba ceased to get economic aid from Moscow and went on to face great difficulties.

“She went to take care of the family and ended up staying. Only my brother, who is also dying to go, and I, stay here in Havana,” Lauren, an 18-year-old student recounts. “I don’t. I want to visit the United States, but I wouldn’t live there. I imagine myself living in Europe.”

While the inaugural flight left full and with a waiting list, last Tuesday, there were still 40 empty seats on the plane (a round-trip ticket costs, on average, U.S $849).

“I came to Havana to visit my family for the last time 10 years ago. Since I live in New Jersey, I had to go to Miami, and from there, buy a flight to here. But, despite being direct, it’s still expensive for us,” María Isabel William explains, a Cuban, 60 years old, who stressed that the flight was not as full as she had imagined. “I left in the 1980s and now I’ve come to visit my mother, who is still here. Apart from her, only my brother and my sister-in-law are still in Havana.”

In Havana, the brother and sister receive their grandmother in the Cuban capital after only four hours of flying: Marina Gonçalves Graphic(See here)

Mere Tourism Is Still Prohibited

In the midst of relatives, one or another American — mostly solitary travelers — go through the small crowd of Cubans. They seem a little lost and seek the chartered taxis hired by agencies. By March of this year, the total number of visitor reached an unprecedented 1 million in the first three months, a record for the small island. And among the new arrivals, a nationality appears for the first time on the fastest-growing list: the Americans, who arrived in greater numbers of 29.5 percent to the island. The official figures, still register a growth by 12.6 percent of Canadians, 23.3 percent of Germans, and 10.8 percent of Italians. The British were the ones who increased visits the most by more than 30.6 percent.

On that Tuesday, a group of five U.S. executives was promptly received by employees of a private agency. Although friendly, they refused to say their names and the reason for the visit to the country. It would be two days of business. Apart from them, about 10 other American passengers traveled on the plane.

“I speak a little Spanish, how is my accent?” the younger one [said] changing the subject.

Tourism agency receives American executives. Graphic 2 (See Here)

Before the rapprochement between the two countries, Americans officially were forbidden to visit the island. However, arriving in Havana has never been a major problem: It only took traveling through a third country, usually Mexico or Canada. Since the Cuban visa is no more than a piece of paper obtained by the airline, there was no official stamp in the passport. That changed last year when the Obama government loosened travel restrictions to Cuba. Americans already can travel to the country for a series of reasons, among them family visits, academic conferences, public presentations, and religious and educational activities: still, not yet as mere tourists. Therefore, many prefer not to say the reason for their trip.

In the United States, the landscape of Terminal 4 of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Airport is also different: The passengers of Middle Eastern airlines that dominate the check-in have mixed with many Cuban families and their trolleys full of electronics. Accompanied by her son, Jorge Mendes, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1999 and works as a truck driver, Milagros Ramírez embarked to return home for the first time since coming to join him in New Jersey, almost two years ago.

“It will be only 21 days, but I am very happy. I am going to stay in the United States, but I want to always be careful to return to Cuba every two years so as not to lose my citizenship,” she said, carrying as many presents as can fit in her suitcase for the children of the family.

Groups of friends saying farewells to relatives were not missing. Lidia Meles also, shielded by her son, was with Milagros and Mendes. In New York since 2008, she is accustomed to spending holidays every year in Havana.

“After these conversations, it’s the first time. Before we had to go through Miami. Now it is much easier, I intend to go more. The normalization (of relations) is a very good thing, if there is a change, it’s good, isn’t it?”

Awaiting the End of the Embargo

The absolute majority of passengers’ reality is like Adelina Alvarez’s who also is preparing to travel alone, but was surrounded by her daughter, grandson, great-grandson, and a big TV. Virna Paz, the daughter, migrated 10 years ago, “for economic reasons” and to stay close to her son, Orestes Delgado, a driver in New York for two decades now. Adelina arrived in 2013. At 76 years, in a wheelchair, she made her first trip to Havana since then, intent on maintaining her adjusted documents.

Touch-and-go. Jorge Mendes and his mother, Milagros Ramirez spent only 21 days in Havana — Isabel De Luca Graphic 3 (See Here)

“She is returning to the United States, she has to return, we are here. I will never return to Cuba. Cuba is a place that I forgot,” her grandson Delgado declared.

In the line near there, Arianne Van Buren, the Swiss economist, based in New York, was on the way to a workshop, which will debate “What is the United States?” with Cuban and foreign authors in Havana. She is involved in a solar energy project for an organic farm in Matanzas City, and it’s the fourth time she is going to Cuba in three years: the first direct flight.

“What has happened in Cuba in the last three years since Raul Castro took over is more important than resuming relations with the United States. There was much change at many levels: privatization, persons working for themselves, church recognition; all of these began to change before normalizing diplomatic relations. Now the embargo must end,” she stated.