Cuba-August-Flipbook

Ready for Takeoff: Brookley Airport has runways in excess of 9,000 feet that can handle direct flights to Cuba
back the next year,” said Morrissette. When a friend visited Cuba
this spring, she found it a welcome revival of the travel link.
Still, there’s no direct commercial flights from Mobile to
Cuba at present. The city airport is regional, not international,
and travelers now fly to Cuba through Tampa, Houston or other
airports. That may change at some point, however.
Both Brookley Airport, where Airbus is located, and Mobile
Regional Airport, which serves the flying public, have runways
longer than 9,000 feet that can handle the largest international
aircraft, including direct flights to Cuba. Mobile Regional is
currently served by American, Delta and United, which all offer
Cuba flights from other U.S. cities.
“We are always looking for routes that the citizens are interested
in,” says airport director McVay. “If Cuba is on the radar
and something the citizens are interested in, then it’s something
we are interested in,” he says, though “ultimately it’s up to the
airlines to make that decision.”
Direct air links would help Cuban-Americans visiting their
homeland, including Maria Conchita Mendez, who leads trade
development with Latin America for Alabama’s port authority.
A long-time advocate for engagement with Cuba and frequent
visitor to the island for decades, she left work at Florida ports 14
years ago to help Mobile build ties with Cuba and other Latin
American nations.
Some call Mendez the resident ambassador for Mobile’s
small Cuban-American community. On a recent weekday, she
paid a visit to 77-year-old Josefina Pacheco, who came from the
rural Cuban town of Manicaragua in Villa Clara province 17
years ago. Pacheco is happy in Mobile, preferring its slower pace
to noisier, more urban Miami or Tampa. “Everyone greets me
here. They say, “Hola Josefina,” she said, with fresh coffee on the
stove. “It’s so friendly and peaceful.”
Committed to Cuba for the long-run, beyond Trump
President Donald Trump’s announcement this June that he will
tighten U.S. restrictions on trade and travel with Cuba hasn’t
chilled Mobile’s decades-long push for engagement with the
island.
“I think people are cautiously optimistic,” said Bill Sisson,
president and CEO of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce,
who visited Cuba last year with the mayor and other local leaders.
“They are watching and waiting for normalization of relations, so
they can open up trade – the same with the entire state. They are
eager to participate in the economic development of Cuba.”
Like the Le Moyne, depicted in statues on the waterfronts of
Mobile and Havana, the city’s leaders want to build two-way ties
with Cuba.
“The biggest challenge for Cuba will be competition, if they
do open up,” says Sisson. “Every port city is going to want to do
business there. But we have had this long-term relationship and
connectivity.” H
J.P. Faber contributed to this report.
72 CUBATRADE AUGUST 2017