High demand for flights from Miami to Cuba. International tourism returns - In the world - The International Region

EFE Agency

The flights to Cuba that departed on Monday from Miami, in South Florida (USA), did so loaded with passengers, on what is the first day that the Caribbean island opens its doors to international tourism after the closure of its borders due to the covid-19 pandemic. The counters at the Miami International Airport (MIA) appeared today crowded with travelers flying to Cuba and who will no longer have to undergo a strict quarantine or show various tests of covid-19 with a negative result, as the island's government had established. A vaccination test or a negative test carried out in the last 72 hours will suffice, a circumstance that has aroused a high demand for flights to Cuba. Many of the Travelers confessed to the Miami media that they had paid up to $1,800 for a journey of about 45 minutes and they asked for an increase in the flights that connect the US with the island, flights that, to a large extent, are occupied by immigrants born on the island who carry medicines and food to their relatives. "It's all a business, they are making money with the needs of the Cuban people and it's an abuse," José Luis Hernández told Univision 23 Miami from Terminal F of the Miami airfield. The images from local news Today they showed passengers with large packages wrapped in plastic inside which there were food, clothing, toiletries and other basic necessities, they said. The practically total opening to international tourism today, which coincides with the mobilization called by the platform Archipelago, was not exempt from setbacks and unforeseen cancellations, as suffered by the Cuban Idelsy González. After having passed the controls at the Miami terminal, the woman along with other passengers bound for Cuba from a flight with a stopover in the Bahamas were disembarked from the plane and without a new travel date on the horizon, as she visibly emotionally confessed to the Miami channel Telemundo 51."We claim our rights. Maybe I'll come tomorrow and we won't fly either," lamented the woman. Next to her, a man who identified himself as Ramón, and who said he has a heart condition and has had a leg surgery, expressed his disappointment because, after having moved from Michigan and disbursing 1,200 dollars for their ticket, were taken off the aircraft due to alleged technical failures. "I have made an enormous sacrifice to see my daughter," he told the television station. It is estimated that as of today 147 flights from Cuban cities will arrive of the United States, where the largest community of Cuban emigrants abroad resides, and of that number, 77 land at the José Martí International Airport in Havana. The reopening of Cuba to international tourism coincides with the celebration today of a peaceful march in the island, a protest that the Cuban regime wants to avoid with the militarization of the country and acts of repudiation. It also takes place at a time when the celebrations for the 502nd anniversary of Havana and the return to classrooms of primary school students take place. The process of de-escalating the most restrictive measures applied in the country due to the coronavirus is attributed by the Cuban authorities to the massive vaccination program against covid-19, which provides for the immunization of 90% of the Cuban population by the end of the month.