Broward wants to be portal to Cuba

Since President Barack Obama opened the lines of travel to Cuba, airlines and cruises have been vying to be portals to take Americans to Cuba and vice versa. Broward County commissioners approved this week allowing the mayor tosend a letter to the U.S. Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets control asking permission to use Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to fly between here and Cuba and for Port Everglades to be designated an entry port for passenger ferry service.

Since 1963, travel has been restricted to and from Cuba. Currently, L.A, New York and Miami have been designated as entryways. For any air or sea port to receive travelers from Cuba, they must get a designation from the Treasury office.

According to the Broward Commission, the U.S. Census data from 2005-2007 indicates that there are more than 100,000 residents of Cuban descent in Broward and Palm Beach counties, which are part of FLL’s catchment area. FLL’s catchment area also includes Miami-Dade County and data indicates that a significant portion of our travelers originate from there.

“The Broward County Aviation Department (BCAD) has been approached by a number of airlines to pursue gateway status for FLL. Staff believes that, based on this, FLL would be a successful and productive gateway to Cuba,” said Kent George, aviation director. “At least one carrier who generally operates exclusively from FLL (versus Miami) has been contracted to operate flights to Cuba from South Florida, and has had to operate from Miami due to the lack of gateway status for FLL.”

Related posts:

1. Emergency plane crash training exercise at airport Nov. 4
2. 95 Express Bus takes Broward residents to Miami
3. A1A in Broward designated scenic highway
4. Broward County opens satellite recording office in Plantation
5. Broward employees get furlough day Memorial Weekend

Short URL: https://browardnetonline.com/?p=3902

Posted by Andrea Freygang on Oct 29 2009. Filed under Broward County, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Local news, Transportation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry