So I was in Miami the other day (MIA) and I saw on the departures board two different flights to Cuba. I was so surprised to see it that at first I thought I had misread it. There was a Continental Connection (Gulfstream would be my guess) to Havana, as well as an American Eagle flight to Camaguey, Cuba. How is this possible? I thought US carriers could not fly to Cuba? Have the laws changed recently? Does this mean I can finally non-rev to Havana? Does anyone know the story with these flights?

Yup I flown to Havana with GIA they have 2 charter flights a day plus maybe one more to handle all of the bags. You cannot non rev you have to get a visa to go to Cuba and I think only Cuban American can do it only once every 3 years. Tickets are like 800 round trip on a Beech 1900D. Kinda of weird when you land and u have military guys with machine guns and a bunch of old Russian airplanes all over

There are scheduled charters for family. You still can't spend any money there.

They are done under special charter, and are for family. They are not normal flights. There is some sort of State Dept authorization involved, although I dont know the particulars. And the earlier poster is right, I went a few months ago to Havanna with a load of relief food in the cabin, 7 boxes in each seat, plus myself and the captain, when we landed the military met us on the ramp and had about 10 guys unload all the boxes right off our flight. they didnt even talk to us. It is definatly an experiance. Everything is military. We reloaded people coming back to the states, and were sent on our merry way, short sweet and to the point.

Eagle flies to about 5 airports down there. Havana, Gitmo, Camaguey, Holguin and (I wanna say Cienfuegos?). I've been down there as an FO. They are special flights for Cuban nationals or former Cuban nationals. They can only go if they left the country properly. We took one guy down there and they wouldn't let him in, had to take him back with us. Apparently he had taken the hard way out (inner tube or a 56 Chevy with 55 gallon drums welded to it maybe?) and there is no coming back for those people. I believe we can also take down people who are approved by the state dept as well as government/military people.

Usually a full cargo hold on the way down, people wearing multiple layers of clothes (for family). Coming back the cargo hold usually is empty.

There is the heavy military presence. There are surface to air missiles about 100 yards off the runway at Holguin, under that camo netting stuff. Tanks, helicopters, you name it. They're ready (for what I don't know). Its pretty cool though. There is a big sign at the airport that says, "Socialismo o muerte" -- socialism or death. Nobody seems to be smiling much, especially at us Americans.

We are not supposed to leave the 'shadow' of the airplane. You don't stay there very long. Nothing breaks (there is NO maintenance there - at least we don't want to find out). ATC takes forever to respond when you call them - at least for us - I think they were playing dominoes. Some restricted areas they don't want you near, other unmarked areas they don't want you near. Other than that it's business as usual. Its actually kind of fun to go down there. I'd like to do a Havana trip someday.

But yep, we can do it. Its just done under some special government program and they are usually considered charter flights.

The Cubans in Cuba are friendlier than the Cubans in Miami.

Thats not hard to believe.

Did anyone here get any pictures of the military hardware at the airport?

Does anyone here want to get shot?

It's weird seeing advertisements for vacations in Cuba... like in Montreal. Then it clicks, oh yea, we're in Canada.

I can neither confirm nor deny that.
I may or may not have.

And yes, I did worry about a surface to air missile taking the wing off shortly after takeoff. They frown upon the taking of pictures at their airports and have been known to confiscate the cameras of the offending person...so you don't just whip out a camera and start clicking away.