Cuba approves flights from 9 more American cities

HAVANA,  (Reuters) – Air travel between the United  States and Cuba will become easier with the opening of charter  flights to the forbidden island from an additional nine U.S.  cities announced by Cuba authorities yesterday.

Cuban travel agency Havanatur Celimar said it added the  cities of Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Baltimore, Chicago, Atlanta,  New Orleans, Dallas, Houston and San Juan, Puerto Rico, to the  list from where charter flights would be accepted.

Cuba is preparing for an increase in visitors from its  long-time ideological foe under a recent loosening of travel  restrictions by the Obama administration.

The United States, which maintains comprehensive sanctions  on the communist-run island and bans tourism to Cuba, does not  allow regular commercial flights between the two countries.

But the Obama administration has lifted all restrictions on  Cuban Americans visiting their homeland and allowed religious,  academic and other professional travel by Americans to Cuba.

Havana Celimar has a monopoly on the Cuban end of U.S.  charter flights and already receives travelers on flights from  Miami, New York and Los Angeles.

The number of U.S. citizens visiting Cuba increased last  year by 20 percent, to 63,000, according to Cuban statistics.

Some 350,000 Cuban Americans visited Cuba in 2010 after the  Obama administration lifted all restrictions on their travel.

The travel opening annoyed Cuban American lawmakers who  have introduced legislation in Congress that would reimpose a  Bush-era restriction on Cuban American travel to the island of  only one visit every three years and more strictly enforce the  ban on U.S. travel to Cuba.

The lawmakers argue that the Obama administration is  helping prop up the Cuban government, while the White House  counters more people-to-people contact is the best way to  undermine the island’s communist system.

President Barack Obama has threatened to veto any move to  undercut his people-to-people policy toward Cuba.

Cuba has said it had 2.53 million tourists in 2010, with  Canada the largest provider at nearly 945,000, followed by  Britain at 174,000 and Italy at 112,000.

Tourism is one of Cuba’s most important earners of foreign  exchange, with revenues of $2.2 billion last year, and an  important provider of jobs.