• Submitted by: manso
• Business and Economy
• 06 / 18 / 2011

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June 17, 2011 8:16 AM. OAKLAND (KCBS) – Seats on flights to and from Cuba will soon be made available at Oakland International Airport.

The East Bay airport is one of 8 airports in the U.S. recently granted access to the communist island nation, following the Obama Administration’s easing of travel restrictions.

Previously, only airports in Miami, Dallas-Forth Worth and Los Angeles provided direct air service to Cuba.

Indeed, when Cuban travel restrictions were eased earlier in the year, Oakland International along with a number of other hubs applied to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency for permission to provide nonstop service to Cuba.

“We saw an opportunity as being the Bay Area gateway via Oakland to Cuba,” reasoned airport spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes. “We knew there would be demand here, people flying for religious reasons, humanitarian, news gathering or academic reasons.”

“It’s about a six-hour flight between Oakland and Havana. Those flights are expected to begin in December and we do expect that they’ll be a weekly charter flight,” said Barnes.

2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc.

Source: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/06/17/oakland-international-airpor...