2-year effort to set up ferry service to Cuba runs aground

Feb 13, 2012

2-year effort to set up ferry service to Cuba runs aground
By H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY

Although charter fights to Cuba have now been approved from a dozen U.S.
airports, an effort to set up cheaper ferry service between the two
countries appears to have run aground, the Sun-Sentinel reports.

About 400,000 Cuban Americans, who are allowed to visit family on the
island whenever they wish under more relaxed policies by the Obama
administration, went to the island on authorized charter flights last
year from Miami, Fort Lauderdale and a handful of other U.S. cities.

But Havana Ferry Partners's application for ferry service out of Port
Everglades, Fla., has languished for two years, the newspaper says. The
company, which would use a 600-passenger ferry to the island, proposes
to charge $50 less than the $400 roundtrip airfare.

At least three other companies are eyeing a similar service, the
newspaper says.

Progress seems unlikely during an election year, the newspaper says,
because it could alienate conservative Cuban-American voters who want to
tighten, not loosen, the 50-year-old U.S. economic embargo on the
Caribbean island.

"In an election year, that company has a better chance of joining Newt
Gingrich's colony on the moon," John Kavulich, senior adviser to the
U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, tells the Sun-Sentinel. The New
York-based group helps companies interested in business with Cuba.

Havana Ferry partners is so frustrated that it is now pushing for
one-time permission to carry passengers to Cuba for Pope Benedict XVI's
visit scheduled for March 26-28, the newspaper says.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/02/ferry-service-cuba-us/1