The United States issued on May 5, for the first time in half a century, licenses for some companies so they can start operating ferry services with passengers to Cuba, amid a process of rapprochement between the two countries.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury “issued certain specific licenses for ferry services with passengers,” a spokeswoman of that Office, Hagar Chemali, told the AFP news agency, according to a report published by www.cubasi.cu on Wednesday.
Four shipping companies in Florida (southeastern U.S.), the coasts of which are 150 km. away from Cuba, confirmed having received the green light from the Department of the Treasury but noted that they still need to get additional permissions, in addition to that of Havana.
Once operational, these services will join those of charter companies, the only ones currently making the journey from the U.S. to the island. Ferries between the two countries were suspended in the 1950s, when they were very popular.
According to the guidelines released Tuesday by the Department of the Treasury, passengers should be included in the twelve categories under which U.S. citizens are allowed to travel to Cuba, among them family visits or visits with academic, cultural, sport or religious purposes.
Cubans or citizens of third countries with a US visa could travel in these ferries from Cuba to the United States, the Department of the Treasury pointed out.
Both the Department of the Treasury and shippers recognized that they should obtain additional permits from other US agencies and Havana, so they do not expect to start operating until a few months later.
“Today’s action, however, was a big step forward,” Joseph Hinson, president of United Americas Shipping Services based in Miami, one of the companies, told AFP. “We hope that if things continue to progress we can be able to start services in September or October,” Hinson said.
Another three companies in Florida, Havana Ferry Partners, United Caribbean Lines and Airline Brokers, announced they also received approval.
U.S. citizens returning by boat are authorized to bring with them the same those traveling by plane can: $400 worth of Cuban products, 100 of them in alcohol or tobacco products, according to the Department of the Treasury.
Coinciding with the announcement of the ferry service, the Jet Blue airlines will begin a weekly charter service between New York and Havana.
The route is added to the newly opened connections between the island and New Orleans, Orlando and Tampa. Most charter flights still depart from Miami, where half of the two million Cubans in the United States live.
In a further sign of detente between the two countries, more than one hundred travel agents and tour operators in the United States attended for the first time the International Tourism Fair of Cuba, which opened on Tuesday in Cayo Coco, 600 km east of Havana.
