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US airlines will offer regularly scheduled service to Cuba this year

US airlines will offer regularly scheduled service to Cuba this year

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New agreement will allow for up to 110 flights per day

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Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

US airlines will resume regularly-scheduled flights to Cuba by the end of the year. The flights — which will most certainly include routes like New York, Atlanta, and Miami to Havana — will represent the first normal commercial service between the two countries in over 50 years.

According to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, the news will be announced on Tuesday, when US officials will sign the agreement in Havana. The deal, which allows for 20 flights per day to Havana and 10 more to each of the nine other international airports in the island nation, follows from efforts back in December to normalize relations between the two countries.

Airlines will have 15 days to submit proposals to the US government, according to the report, and decisions about approved routes should be handed down by the summer. Ticketing for the first flights is expected to arrive this fall. Currently, the only flights between the US and Cuba are chartered, and the US government only allows travel for certain reasons — tourism is not on the list.