Yesterday we reported that Vancouver’s Cuba Ventures CEO was in Washington to promote “further business opportunities for companies wanting to do business in Havana. That is the “narrative.”
Today we are calling attention to the facts: Several US airlines are ceasing its operations in Cuba; others have cut back on the number of flights. That is not the only fact General Castro’s lobby wants to sweep under the rug. According to Reuters, the British news agency, Havana is the worse place to live, with the worse quality of life in Latin America. The list prepared by the consulting firm Mercer rates Havana 192, while Caracas dropped from 185 to 189th place. Vienna, Austria’s capital on the Danube, was rated for the eighth consecutive year as “the most pleasant city in the world.”
Even positive appraisals issued by foreigners on Fidel Castro’s death required damage control. Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau’s effusive praise for Castro on his death was considered so over the top that Ottawa urged Canadian embassies around the world to refrain from distributing the PM’s statement.” Those are the facts, not the narrative.
President Donald Trump’s Cuba policy continues to be obstructed by the bureaucrats still in charge of US Cuba policy who ran Mr. Obama’s “outreach” to the island. “Personnel is policy.” President Trump has begun to fulfill campaign promises, and the revisiting of Mr. Obama’s executive orders has begun. But reciprocity is still missing from US – Cuba relations. The First Secretary of Cuba’s embassy in Washington spoke at several Montana universities recently. He is now scheduled to speak at Penn State. No American diplomat has ever been permitted a similar tour of Cuban universities.
The New York Times, March 13, 2017
Airlines Drop Cuba Flights, Citing Lower Demand Than Anticipated
[American Airlines, Jet Blue, Silver Airways, Frontier Airlines: “Market conditions have failed to materialize]
Just six months after being the first airline to sell seats on regularly scheduled flights to Cuba, Silver Airways, a regional carrier based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., that specializes in smaller markets, will scrap its service to the island next month. It is the latest industry move to underscore that fewer Americans are traveling to Cuba than originally anticipated.
Citing low demand and competition from major airlines, Silver said it would cease its operations in Cuba effective April 22. The move follows other reductions by American Airlines and JetBlue, which in recent weeks either switched to smaller aircraft or cut back on the number of flights. Experts say the changes in the young market illustrate not so much a lack of passengers, but the rush of airlines into new territory with an abundance of seats the market could not possibly fill.
“Other airlines continue to serve this market with too many flights and oversized aircraft, which has led to an increase in capacity of approximately 300 percent between the U.S. and Cuba,” said Misty Pinson, the director of communications for Silver. “It is not in the best interest of Silver and its team members to behave in the same irrational manner as other airlines.”
On Monday, Denver-based Frontier Airlines said that it would cease its daily flight to Havana from Miami on June 4. The airline said costs in Havana significantly exceeded initial assumptions, “market conditions failed to materialize” and too much capacity had been allocated between Florida and Cuba. [More] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/travel/airlines-reduce-flights-to-cuba-and-switch-to-smaller-planes.html?_r=0
