Cuba

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CUBA/mike1st/mark2nd

By JOHN BRINSLEY

Staff Reporter

Last week’s news that Los Angeles and New York would be allowed to provide charter flights to Cuba triggered an avalanche of calls to local travel agencies licensed to arrange such flights even though nothing is expected to be available until October or later.

“My clients are very interested,” said Rafael A. Oceguera, owner of Adventure Tours & Travel in Pasadena. “The phones haven’t stopped ringing. But going from interest to reality is a big difference.”

Besides family members within L.A.’s 80,000-strong Cuban-American community (the nation’s third largest such population behind Miami and New York), those likely to book flights to Cuba from Los Angeles International Airport include a variety of businesspeople.

“The entertainment industry is one category, as are the exporters and importers that do business in Cuba,” said John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. “The entertainment role is a big one, since individuals can go to perform there. Medical companies that export to Cuba will also be interested.”

There also is a sizable Cuban-American community in Las Vegas that would likely book flights from L.A. once the flights are available.

Certain groups (those with relatives in Cuba, U.S. diplomats, sanctioned athletes, journalists and others) automatically qualify for visits, with certain restrictions. But anyone traveling to Cuba for whatever purpose must obtain a visa from the Cuban government and a license from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

While the number of such licenses being issued remains low, obtaining them has been easier in recent months. “The Treasury Department has been extremely accommodating,” Kavulich said. “Business people can now get a license in 24 hours if needed, where a year ago it would be 30 days.”

The new L.A.-to-Cuba charter flights mean opportunities for travel agencies and charter carriers. Pierre Galoppi, chief operating officer for Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based Gulfstream International Airlines, is eyeing L.A. and will make a decision in the next few weeks.

“I am absolutely interested,” he said. “But I can’t see more than one flight a week (from L.A.). A 727 would work, with maybe 160 to 175 passengers.”

There are 12 U.S.-based companies licensed to charter flights to Cuba, and 11 of them are in Florida. The other, Dallas-based AMR Corp., parent of American Airlines, doesn’t offer U.S.-to-Cuba flights and wouldn’t comment on its plans.

For many years, Miami has been the only U.S. location from which flights could be legally chartered to Cuba.

Miami International Airport, which does $30 million a year in Cuban travel-related business, has seen the number of authorized U.S. travelers to Cuba rise by around 10 percent a year for the last few years.

A round-trip ticket from Miami costs about $350, including taxes. None of the several industry sources interviewed would estimate what the cost might be for a round-trip ticket from LAX, though all agreed it would be considerably more than $350.

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