Could flights to Cuba follow Marathon airport’s ‘International’ designation?

Could flights to Cuba follow Marathon airport’s ‘International’ designation?

BY TERRY SCHMIDA

Now that Florida Keys Marathon Airport has added “International” to its title, could flights to Cuba become a possibility?

Maybe, said Monroe County Director of Airports Don DeGraw.

“Nothing is planned at this point,” DeGraw said. “But by August we’ll certainly have the facilities in place to accommodate that kind of traffic. We need to see a few more rule changes first, and of course, we’d have to have approval from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.”

The issue has been on a lot of minds since the first real commercial flight to Cuba from Key West in a half-century was undertaken March 13 by the partnership of Mambi International Group of Miami, and Tampa-based Air Maribrisas Airlines.

A test flight carrying Key West Mayor Craig Cates flew to Havana in December 2013.

The Board of County Commissioners approved changing the middle Keys airport’s name to Florida Keys Marathon International Airport during its March 18 meeting, in anticipation of the completion of a new, $1 million Customs and Border Protection facility at that airport. DeGraw predicted that the facility should be finished by August, opening the door to international air travel.

Currently no commercial flights operate out of Marathon, though carriers have tried over the years. Private planes and cargo are currently the mainstays of the airport, which is considerably bigger than its Key West counterpart.

Airport officials in Marathon are currently in talks with Tropic Ocean Airways over plans to fly private charters to and from Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.

Mambi officials couldn’t be reached for comment.

Commercial flights to Cuba out of Marathon would be a first, according to Monroe County historian Tom Hambright.

“They never had scheduled Cuban traffic out of Marathon,” he said. “There were private planes flying there, and probably some charters, but all the commercial flights were out of Key West. They’re going to try, I guess.”

Hambright said that customs and immigration procedures were much more lax in the 1950s, before the 1959 Cuban Revolution soured relations between the two countries. An economic embargo and travel ban have been in place for more than 50 years.