Cuba beckons, but US airlines and passengers face hurdles
Just a short hop from Florida, flying to Cuba should be easy. But restarting scheduled airline service after 55 years has been anything but a milk run for US airlines. Regular flights won’t exactly be normal for US passengers, either. Just as Cuban society often appears frozen in time to Americans, so, too, will airline service. Self-service and advance check-in are foreign concepts, at least for now. Long airport lines and longer waits for luggage have plagued charter service to the island. Getting through immigration can be tedious and eligibility requirements complicated. But US airlines say they are trying, in effect, to stage a service revolution, and they are confident they can overcome obstacles such as some technical systems that aren’t compatible and export constraints on some vital passenger service encrypted software. “It won’t be a fabulous experience, but it won’t be a poor experience,” says Peter Cerda, regional vice president at the IATA, who has worked closely with Cuban authorities and US airlines. “Sooner or later, the technology that we take for granted now…will have to be put in place in Cuba.”<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2016-09-08/general/cuba-beckons-but-us-airlines-and-passengers-face-hurdles
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Cuba beckons, but US airlines and passengers face hurdles
Just a short hop from Florida, flying to Cuba should be easy. But restarting scheduled airline service after 55 years has been anything but a milk run for US airlines. Regular flights won’t exactly be normal for US passengers, either. Just as Cuban society often appears frozen in time to Americans, so, too, will airline service. Self-service and advance check-in are foreign concepts, at least for now. Long airport lines and longer waits for luggage have plagued charter service to the island. Getting through immigration can be tedious and eligibility requirements complicated. But US airlines say they are trying, in effect, to stage a service revolution, and they are confident they can overcome obstacles such as some technical systems that aren’t compatible and export constraints on some vital passenger service encrypted software. “It won’t be a fabulous experience, but it won’t be a poor experience,” says Peter Cerda, regional vice president at the IATA, who has worked closely with Cuban authorities and US airlines. “Sooner or later, the technology that we take for granted now…will have to be put in place in Cuba.”<br/>
