US stops private charter flights to Cuba

The U.S. administration has suspended all private charter flights between the United States and Cuba, in order to increase economic pressure on Havana.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that “the Castro regime uses tourism and travel funds to fund its abuse and interference in Venezuela.”

Last October, the US banned regular scheduled flights to all cities in communist Cuba except Havana.

Tourism to Cuba has already been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

Hardline policies regarding Cuba and its regional ally Venezuela are welcomed by conservative Cuban-American groups in Florida, a major battlefield state that Donald Trump hopes to win in the November presidential election.

The suspension of charter flights comes into effect on October 13, the birthday of the late Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.

Authorized U.S. charter flights to Cuba for medical purposes as well as for search and rescue will still be allowed.

The BBC’s Will Grant in Havana says US charter flights have left the gap left by commercial airlines, many of which did not run services to Cuba until the Obama administration in 2014 severed diplomatic ties with the island.

U.S. commercial flights to Cuba were returned in August 2016 for the first time in more than 50 years. The thief was brought back by the Trump Administration.

In May, the U.S. Department of Transportation set up a cap for charter flights to Cuba at 3,600 a year.