at The Miami Herald reported on the inaugural flight from Miami to Cuba.
A mother and daughter from Utah took a leap to experience history. A couple snagged a chance to save money and see family. A woman returned home for a quick vacation. And a man finally had a chance at reunion with his children — nearly a decade since their separation.
These and tens of other stories boarded Flight 387 on JetBlue in Fort Lauderdale Wednesday morning for a historical “first:” The inaugural commercial flight to Cuba in 55 years.
About 150 passengers, including some 75 journalists and U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, took the sold-out, 72-minute trip to the central Cuban city of Santa Clara at about 10 a.m. Wednesday. The flight was wheels down in Abel Santamaria Airport, located three hours east of Havana, just after 11 a.m. Some journalists, including the Miami Herald, were denied visa requests to be among passengers on the flight.
The send-off in Fort Lauderdale included pastelitos, Cuban sandwiches, croquettes and even a cake in the shape of a cigar box. Hundreds of journalists and JetBlue personnel packed into Gate F7 at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to celebrate another step in the ever-warming relations between the two countries since President Barack Obama announced the reestablishment of ties with Cuba in December 2014.
As the plane, an Airbus A320 named ‘Keep Blue and Carry On,” turned on the runway, two Broward firetrucks sprayed ceremonial cannons overhead. Piloting it were Captain Mark Luaces, raised in Miami to Cuban parents who came to the U.S. as teenagers, and First Officer Francisco Barreras’, whose parents migrated to the U.S. in 1961, the year commercial flights ceased.
“This is definitely one of the proudest moments in JetBlue’s history,” JetBlue President and CEO Robin Hayes said in an interview.
Among the media frenzy and officials were families that now have to jump less hurdles to travel home.
In the years since 1961, charters have operated flights to Cuba, often cash-only and at twice the cost of the current flights JetBlue and other airline carriers are offering to Cuba. American Airlines and Silver Airways will also start regular flights to the island in the coming week. The airlines received approval to fly to nine airports, excluding Havana, this summer.