TIA restores seasonal flights to Holguin, Cuba.

TIA restores seasonal flights to Holguin, Cuba.
Thursday, May 2, 2013 10:47am

TAMPA -- Three months after the flights were suspended, Tampa
International Airport announced Thursday it would host new seasonal
flights to Holguin, Cuba.
Starting June 11, ABC Charters will fly once a week to the east Cuban
beach town, about 500 miles from Havana, airport officials said.

The airport lost two of its five weekly flights to Cuba in February, a
blow to an airport seeking to attract international travelers.

ABC Charters, which flies to Havana on Saturdays, ended its weekly
Holguin flight in February due to lack of interest, company officials
said. Xael Charters moved to Fort Lauderdale, where company officials
expected less competition and more fervor for Cuban flights.

Calling it a "very dynamic" and evolving market, Lopano said leaders in
the young and rocky Cuban travel business are learning which flights
offer the most lucrative business.

"Our operators, they understand the market so much better now," Lopano said.

More than 40,000 travelers have flown to or from Cuba via Tampa
International since September 2011, when the first nonstop commercial
flights to the Caribbean's largest island took off in 50 years.

More than 80,000 Cuban-Americans live in Tampa Bay, giving it America's
third-largest population, behind South Florida and New York.

International business has proven a key factor in the airport's growth.
While the airport served 1.8 million passengers in March, a 5 percent
gain since March 2012, international passengers in March soared more
than 13 percent over the same time period, and 43 percent higher than
March 2011, airport data show.

New domestic flights, too

At Thursday's meeting of the airport's governing board, the Hillsborough
County Aviation Authority, airport officials also unveiled new nonstop
flights to the American Northeast.

Beginning July 4, Frontier Airlines will begin twice-weekly nonstop
flights aboard 168-seat Airbus A320 jets to Wilmington, Delaware. And
beginning October 25, JetBlue will launch new nonstop daily flights to
Hartford, Connecticut, expanding on the airline's flight growth last
year to New York and Washington D.C.

The airport's growth in passengers and the sagging cost of jet fuel are
inspiring airlines to see Tampa Bay as "more valuable," Lopano said.
"That helps people understand this market is the real deal."

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/airlines/tia-restores-seasonal-flights-to-holguin-cuba/2118741