Quickest Flight to Cuba Now From Key West

Feds approve flights, but restrictions remain
By Dustin Lushing,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 14, 2011 4:16 PM CDT
Quickest Flight to Cuba Now From Key West
(FILES) This November 25, 2009 photo shows the marker at the southernmost point in the continental US in Key West Florida.The marker is 90 miles (140 km) from Cuba. Christmas in Cuba was awash with hard-to-get presents like flat-screen TVs and expensive candies as a wave of US-based Cubans visited for...   (Getty Images)

Americans can now legally hop a plane in Key West and skip over to Cuba: The US government has given the green light to Key West International Airport to run charter flights to the communist state 90 miles away, reports the Huffington Post. Restrictions do remain: Havana-bound flights are limited to a max of 10 passengers—whereas Fort Lauderdale can fly up to 150 passengers—and citizens must still be authorized by the feds before embarking on their Cuban jaunt.

The rule-change restores a well-tread tourist route that was disrupted by severed ties between Washington and Fidel Castro's regime. "Key West and Cuba share a history and it would be nice to see some normalcy back between us and Havana," says Key West's mayor. The list of cities with permission to send Americans off to Cuba now include New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and eight others approved by President Obama in March. (More Cuba stories.)

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