By Daniel Schweimler in Cuba. Thursday, 1 November, 2001,
23:49 GMT. BBC News Online
An American airline has begun flights from the US to Cuba - the first direct
scheduled transport connection between the two Cold War enemies in 40 years.
The twice-daily Continental Airlines flights, between Miami and the Cuban
capital Havana, will serve Cuban-Americans who visit family on the island each
year as well as Americans with special permission to travel to Cuba.
As the passengers stepped off the inaugural flight at Havana's Jose Marti
International Airport, they were presented with roses and straw hats.
They were smiling despite the hour and 20 minutes delay in Miami for
security reasons.
On board were company directors and others involved in negotiating the deal.
One of them, Thomas Cooper, said the service was a strictly business
enterprise with no political overtures.
"We simply want to afford people who are legally licensed to fly
between Florida and Cuba or the United States and Cuba, a simplified, safe,
convenient way to exercise that privilege," he said.
Flights to increase
Continental is also planning a weekly link between Havana and New York.
Tens of thousands of US citizens, mostly Cuban-Americans holding US
passports, fly to Cuba every year.
They do so legally exempt from the rules governing the 40-year US trade
embargo against Cuba.
American artists, journalists, sports people and actors can also gain
permission to visit the communist island.
The rest fly in via a third country such as Mexico, Canada or the Bahamas
and risk facing prosecution on their return to the United States.
The arrival of the Continental Airlines Boeing 737 in Havana does not signal
the end of the US trade embargo against Cuba, but it does perhaps illustrate the
forging of closer links between the people of the two countries which lie just
140 kilometres (87 miles) apart. | 
