Cuba charter flights from D/FW begin in August

Cuba charter flights from D/FW begin in August
April 07, 2011

Weekly charter flights to Cuba will begin on August 27 out of
Dallas/Fort Worth Airport now that the airport is on the government's
list of approved airports to offer charter service to the island nation.

Airport staff told board members at the its monthly meeting on Thursday
that Miami-based ABC Charters will operate its service out of D/FW.
Charter operators are permitted to sell seats only to those eligible to
travel to Cuba under government regulations which includes
Cuban-Americans and their families, educators and religious groups.

In February, the airport's passenger traffic was up 0.9 percent with 3.8
million passengers. The airport would have seen a bigger improvement if
there hadn't been the large snow and ice storm in the first week of the
month, said chief financial officer Chris Poinsatte. International
travel was up 2.7 percent for the month with much of the increase coming
from travel to Europe since British Airways now uses a Boeing 747 on its
London-D/FW route.

Poinsatte told board members that passenger estimates for March should
be up 1.2 percent.

The board also approved $164.8 million ten-year contract with Bombardier
Transportation Holdings for maintenance on its Skylink people mover system.

During the meeting, the board also remembered airport executive Bill
Frainey who died unexpectedly last month while on a business trip to
Australia to promote the airport's new routes to Sydney that will be
launched by Qantas Airways in May.

-Andrea Ahles

http://blogs.star-telegram.com/sky_talk/2011/04/cuba-charter-flights-from-dfw-begin-in-august.html