US airlines and the Cuba route awards Part 2: Cuba's smaller airports face a major influx

Now that US regulators have made their decisions on service awards for Cuba, the airlines must now prepare to serve a country with unique challenges - ranging from airport infrastructure to hotel room availability. The significant hurdles have not quelled excitement over the re-establishment of scheduled airline services to Cuba, which will resume later in 2016.

Aside from the closely watched contest to win service to Havana, the US DoT also awarded service rights to nine other secondary Cuban cities and, not surprisingly, South Florida features prominently in those route assignments. Gauging accurate levels of demand in those markets could take some time to determine. With a 50-plus year absence of scheduled airline flights between the US and Cuba, there is no up-to-date data from which to measure demand patterns.

Although Cuba holds much promise, an ample level of guesswork will be necessary as airlines navigate dealing with the Cuban government in order to ensure a smooth service launch. Some level of passenger education is also necessary in order to create the right set of customer expectations for travel to Cuba.

(This is Part 2 in a series of reports examining route awards between the US and Cuba. Part 1 focused on awards rights from the US to Havana.)