CubaTrade-April2017-FLIPBOOK

TRANSPORTATION
Photo courtesy of American Airlines
American wheat
growers stand ready
to meet demand
in Cuba.
It’s time to end
the embargo.
AN OUTPOST IN HAVANA
American Airlines opens the first ticket office in
Havana for any regularly scheduled U.S. airline
The Ribbon Cutting (from left): Christine Valls, director
of Florida and Caribbean sales; Lorena Sandoval, regional
operations manager; and Galo Berltron, country manager
By Doreen Hemlock
In the United States, it’s common for
travelers to book their flights online and
pay by credit card. Not so in Cuba, where
internet access is limited and few people
have credit cards. That helps explain the
excitement over the debut of American
Airlines’ new ticket service center in Cuba,
the first opened by a scheduled U.S. airline
on the island in more than half a century.
Passengers can visit the office weekdays
and on Saturday mornings to get information
or buy tickets in cash.
Havana resident Onelio Ortueta
visited on a recent Saturday to pick up a
ticket to fly to Miami that same afternoon.
The price: about $224 round-trip, paid in
Cuban convertible pesos called CUCs.
“This is marvelous,” said the 58-yearold
who works in tourism and found
the Saturday hours convenient. “And the
ticket is so cheap. Three months ago, when
there were only charter flights to Miami, it
cost me nearly $600.”
American Airlines has three Cubans
working at the new ticket center in the
Miramar Business Center, where other
travel companies also have offices. The
workers are not direct American Airlines
employees. “As per Cuban law, all foreign
corporations licensed to do business in
the country are required to hire employees
through a government employment agency,”
said Lorena Sandoval, who heads up
American’s ticket service centers in Latin
America and the Caribbean from Miami.
The office accepts cash only, paid in
CUC. Unlike offices in the United States
or in other parts of Latin America, customers
can’t check-in or receive a boarding
pass; the self-service machine is not operational;
and frequent-flyer program reservations
and inquiries are limited—at least for
now, Sandoval said by email: “However, we
are working to resolve these issues.”
American opened the office Feb.
1, a bit later than anticipated. It waited
until December holidays finished before
providing four weeks of training to the
contract workers, Sandoval said.
It’s no surprise that American is the
first U.S. airline to open a free-standing
ticket office in Cuba. The Texas-based
carrier has flown charters to the island for
more than 25 years and now offers the
most scheduled service to Cuba of any
U.S. airline: 10 daily flights to six destinations.
Despite the recent announcement
that both Silver and Frontier airlines were
cancelling their scheduled flights to Cuba,
American remains committed. It started
scheduled service to five Cuban cities in
September and added Havana on Nov. 28.
To open the ticket office, American
first needed to obtain a business license
from the Cuba Chamber of Commerce.
That license lets it enter into commercial
arrangements with firms in Cuba—to
lease space, for example—as well as hire
personnel.
Tourism worker Ortueta gushed over
the new convenience as he left American’s
office, ticket in hand. “Please tell your
President,” he told this Cuba Trade reporter,
“not to even think about taking away
these flights!” H
26 CUBATRADE APRIL 2017