Interesting move. Correct me if I am wrong but Continental will be the first US airline to offer public service to Havana? Not including charters.
The Continental service is a charter flight offered by Cuba Travel Service..
So, while the flights are scheduled they are still considered public charter flights.
Sort of. It appears that they actually started to do this as early as 2001:
US airline starts flights to Cuba
I couldn’t find anything on when the last commercially scheduled US flight was to Cuba, going back to shortly before Bay of Pigs.
BL.
The last flight to Havana by the original National Airlines was 1961. I have the feeling flights by Pan Am stopped about the same time.
They’ve had commercial flights out of FLL for years. But not just anyone can take a flight
LAX - HAV Flt 1923
HAV - LAX Flt 1924
Flight 1924 is currently airborn
Under charter flight numbers
Yes, these are still charter flights.
You can still not have scheduled flights between the the two countries for various reasons, including the fact that there is no US-Cuba bilateral.