First US-Havana commercial flight lands in Cuba
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E-mail Xinhua, November 29, 2016
The first U.S. commercial flight from the United States to Cuba's capital city of Havana landed in Cuba on Monday amid uncertainty of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's Cuba policy.
American Airlines, one of the world's largest airlines, launched its first commercial flight to Havana from Miami, Florida on Monday and reportedly planed to launch another flight from Charlotte, North Carolina to Havana on Wednesday.
Apart from American Airlines, JetBlue Airways also launched its first flights to Havana from New York, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.com.
In August, a JetBlue Airways flight with U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx on board landed in Santa Clara, Cuba, making it the first U.S. airliner to land in Cuba in 50 years.
The new U.S. flights to Cuba came as Trump threatened to "terminate" the agreement made by American and Cuban governments to normalize relations.
"If Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people and the U.S. as a whole, I will terminate deal," said Trump in a Twitter post on Monday.
December 2014, in the most sweeping change in U.S.-Cuban relations in five decades, U.S. President Barack Obama announced plans to normalize ties with Cuba in a move that has sparked much controversy in the United States.
From then on, the Obama administration announced new amendments to sanctions on Cuba, further easing travel and business restrictions on the island country.
The U.S. Transportation Department in June approved six domestic airlines to begin scheduled flights between U.S. cities and Cuban cities other than Havana. In August, final approval was granted to eight U.S. airlines to fly to Havana.
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