Cuba Flights Could Begin from Tampa This Fall

Airport staff told Hillsborough County Aviation Authority board members Thursday that Tampa Bay has a good chance of landing daily flights to Havana compared to competing cities, like Miami, Orlando or even Los Angeles.

Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways submitted applications to the U.S. Department of Transportation to offer flights from Tampa International to Cuba last month. Each carrier proposed two roundtrips daily to Havana. Florida led the field for the number of applications filed for Cuba flights. Miami and Fort Lauderdale International airports tallied a total of 210 requested flights. Orlando and Tampa tied for second with 28 requested flights each.

Los Angeles was next with 25 flights and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York had 24 requested flights.

"There is an overwhelming interest in flights to Havana right now," said Chis Minner, vice president of marketing with the Tampa airport. That is partly what lead airport officials to submit a 97-page package detailing Cuba's historic relationship with Tampa Bay and a detailed market analysis and recommendation for flights.

Airport staff also collected more than 5,700 signatures on a petition in support of flights to and from Cuba and Tampa Bay.

One-fifth of Tampa's Hispanic population is of Cuban ancestry, said Chris Minner, the airport's vice president of marketing. The region's Cuban population is the United States' third largest.

Tampa already offers nine weekly charter flight to various destinations in Cuba. The majority of those flights go to Havana. Other destinations include Santa Clara and Holguin.

Travel to Cuba is still restricted to non-tourism and non-business related reasons. Regulators will only approve 20 daily flights to Havana, and the U.S. says it will allow as many as 90 more flights to other Cuban cities. Approval for new flights are expected to come this summer with flights beginning in the fall.

Tampa International Airport recorded a six percent jump in passenger traffic for the month of February, compared to February 2015, which accounts for 80,000 new travelers, Minner said. Spirit Air lead the way with a 57 percent spike in the number of passengers. Southwest Airlines added 29,000 new passengers.

International travel continues to go up too, thanks to the Lufthansa flight that began service to Frankfurt in October. International travel was up 17 percent in February.

Source: Tampa Bay Times