American Airlines has submitted a request to the US Department of Transportation (DOT) for increased flight operations between Miami and Cuba.
In a letter addressed to the DOT’s director Benjamin Taylor and division chief Brett Kruger uploaded on regulations.gov, the airline requested the department to “expeditiously grant” its pending application given on January 28, 2020.
American had requested the allocation of 14 roundtrip, weekly combination flights between Miami International Airport (MIA) to Havana Jose Marti International Airport (HAV). The airline said that the COVID-19 global pandemic began before the DOT was able to act on its request.
The airline now plans to initiate two additional daily nonstop MIA–HAV roundtrips, comprising 14 frequencies weekly, within 90 days of the frequency allocation. American Airlines mentioned that its request remains consistent with the US-Cuba Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) executed on February 16, 2016, pertaining to scheduled air transport services, which allows US carriers to operate up to 20 daily roundtrip frequencies for scheduled combination services to and from Havana. Due to its geographical proximity, Miami has become a convenient location for Cubans to migrate. Plenty of Cuban families also send their children to Miami for education. In 2019, the Cuban-born population in Miami had exceeded 700,000.