Silver Airways, American Begin Selling Tickets to Cuba
June 16 2016 - 3:40PM
Dow Jones News
Silver Airways Inc., a Florida-based operator of turboprop
planes, said it put its planned Cuba flights on sale last weekend
hoping to be the first airline to begin selling scheduled flights
to the island nation in more than 50 years. It intends to operate
its first flight Sept. 1.
American Airlines Group Inc. said it put tickets on sale earlier
this week and plans to start flying Sept. 7 to two Cuban
airports.
Last week, the Transportation Department awarded rights to six
U.S. carriers to serve secondary Cuban airports. But it said it
would wait until later this summer to apportion airline requests
for flights to Havana, because it received three times more
requests than the 20 daily flights that are available.
American, the top U.S. airline by traffic, won rights to five
secondary Cuban airports from its Miami hub. It plans to use Boeing
737-800s with 160 seats or Airbus A319s with 144 seats and fly one
or two times daily. Flights to Cienfuegos and Holguin are scheduled
to begin first, on Sept. 7, followed by Santa Clara and Camaguey
two days later, then Varadero Airport in Matanzas province on Sept.
11, said an airline spokeswoman.
A flight from Cienfuegos on Sept. 7, returning a week later,
cost $488 round trip on American's website.
Silver said its first flight, to Santa Clara, Cuba, will take
off Sept. 1 from Fort Lauderdale. That flight will start operating
three times a week and move to daily service on Oct. 13. Flights to
the other eight secondary Cuban airports it was cleared to serve
will begin between Oct. 13 and Dec. 16, depending on the route,
operating anywhere between daily and once a week, the company
said.
Jason Bewley, Silver's executive vice president of commercial
and chief financial officer, said Cuban authorities now must
formally authorize the U.S. flights on the dates Silver said it
wants and is selling. "Fares we're selling, we're going to honor,
regardless," he said, even if Cuban authorities change the taxes
they are imposing on the flights.
Using a promotional code, a round trip to Santa Clara departing
on Sept. 8 and returning a week later is $313.16 on Silver's
website. Without the promotion, the fare is $425.16. Silver
operates 34-seat turboprop planes, which should be easier to fill
than the much larger planes its rivals plan to put on the routes,
Mr. Bewley said.
Silver, owned by Victory Park Capital Advisors LLC, a
Chicago-based investment firm, is a leading regional airline within
the state of Florida and in offering flights from there to the
Bahamas.
Because U.S. citizens can't go to Cuba strictly for tourism,
passengers will need to declare themselves in one of 12 categories
of travel authorized by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign
Assets Control. Those categories include family visits, educational
and religious activities, humanitarian projects and athletic
competitions.
U.S. airlines are expected to communicate with their customers
by email on how to self-declare their category of travel to the
government or help them do so at the airport before departures.
They also are expected to assist passengers with obtaining Cuban
visas, either ahead of time or at the airport. Over time, these
tasks may be accomplished on their websites.
Silver hasn't yet visited all nine Cuban airports it intends to
serve. Mr. Bewley said the company will soon begin airport visits
to assess the facilities, arrange for space, get the necessary
information technology tools into place and hire state-owned ground
handlers to fuel the planes and load and unload the luggage. In the
beginning, he said, Silver will bring its own mechanics on its
flights, but hopes eventually there will be approved maintenance
providers in Cuba.
Silver also is seeking approval to fly to Havana five times a
day. But due to the competition for the route rights, Mr. Bewley
said the carrier would be satisfied with two daily flights, one of
which it would split between Fort Myers and West Palm Beach, and
the other between Key West and Jacksonville. Those four Florida
cities have sizable Cuban-American populations but have no other
opportunity for now for direct service to Cuba.
Larger carriers including American, Delta Air Lines Inc., United
Continental Holdings Inc., Southwest Airlines Co. and JetBlue
Airways Corp. also have requested numerous Havana flights. JetBlue
and Southwest last week were among the group that received rights
to some of Cuba's secondary airports. They said they would start
flying later this year.
Write to Susan Carey at susan.carey@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 16, 2016 15:25 ET (19:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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