Cuba is Now Open for Business

• US Lifts Sanctions on Doing Business with Cuba

• Business Opportunities in Cuba

• Private Jets Flying into Cuba

• Airlines Developing Cuba Strategy

Introduction

President Barack Obama’s decision to travel to Cuba in March 2016 and meet with President Raúl Castro. He will become the first sitting American President to visit Cuba in 88 years, the last being  Calvin Coolidge in 1928. Allowing the US and Cuba to do business together opens an array of business opportunities for people from both nations.

Business in Cuba 

Jonathan Showe is author of Cuba Rising: An American Insider’s Perspective, Showe has visited Cuba more than 170 times, including leading YPO and WPO groups, consulting for multinational corporations, working on foreign economic policy under two U.S. presidents and running four companies involved in manufacturing and distribution.

 Showe says the opportunities for U.S. business and entrepreneurship in Cuba now are mind boggling. Stand on any street corner in Cuba and a hundred possibilities spring to mind. Like other developing countries, Cuba needs capital, technology, jobs, import substitution and export stimulation.

 The Cuban people are highly educated, very healthy, English-speaking and underpaid workforce. Here are some business ideas Showe reckons will work in #Cuba:

• Build beachfront condos for American retirees, just a 35-minute flight from the United States.
• Service companies (IT, legal, architects, accounting, etc.) offering immensely better wage and benefit packages, and still seeing their labor costs plunge.

• With a crumbling infrastructure combined with billions in multilateral institution funds this will create a myriad of opportunities.
• Import modern agricultural equipment and methods to satisfy both domestic demand and export possibilities (Cuba currently imports 90 percent of its food).
• Building new housing — the country is at least a million units short on housing.

 Up until now 65% of the Cuban economy was controlled by the military, including construction, electricity, communications, aviation, sugar and tourism, and the military has only approved seven joint ventures in the last two years.  They also manage to keep a controlling 51% in each venture. All this is about to change, but it will take time.

Private Jets Flying into Cuba 

Private #flights to Cuba from the United States are now possible, but an operator must determine if the flight matches specified categories. An application is made with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), who will determine whether or not the flight will be granted. The OFAC administers economic and trade sanctions against a foreign country within the United States government.

 The 12 specific categories allowed by the OFAC are:

1. Family visits
2. Official business of the US government, foreign governments and certain intergovernmental organizations
3. Journalistic activity
4. Professional research and professional meetings
5. Educational activities
6. Religious activities
7. Public performances, clinics, workshops, athletic and other competitions, and exhibitions
8. Support for the Cuban people
9. Humanitarian projects
10. Activities of private foundations or research or educational institutes
11. Exportation, importation, or transmission of information or information materials
12. Certain authorized export transactions.

 Entrepreneurs are always the first to go after new business opportunities and the private jet is the way they travel.

#JetSuite is offering six-passenger flights on the company's

Edition CJ3, or four-passenger flights on its #Embraer Phenom 100 aircraft. Nonstop flights to Cuba on JetSuite aircraft from Miami International Airport, Palm Beach International Airport or Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport range from $11,319 to $11,519 one-way.

"We are thrilled to expand our service to Cuba, a destination I know our clients will be eager to explore," said JetSuite CEO Alex Wilcox in a statement.

 JetSuite also launched its new Cuba service in Key West, Tampa, Orlando and a dozen other cities.

 Great advantage of flying private is that you can pick to fly into the closest airport to where your meeting is.

 Havana Airports Within 50 Miles

• Jose Marti Intl Airport, MUHA, HAV, Havana, Cuba
• Managua Airport, MUMG, Managua, Cuba
• Playa Baracoa Airport, MUPB, Havana, Cuba
• San Antonio De Los Banos Airport, MUSA, San Antonio De Los Banos, Cuba
• Mariel Airport, MUML, Mariel, Cuba
• Ciudad Libertad Airport, MULB, Havana, Cuba
• Juan Gualberto Gomez Intl Airport, MUVR, VRA, Varadero, Cuba
• Rafael Perez Airport, MUNG, GER, Nueva Gerona, Cuba
• Pinar Del Rio Airport, MUPR, QPD, Pinar Del Rio, Cuba

La Coloma Airport, MULM, LCL, Pinar Del Rio, Cuba

Airlines Flying to Cuba 

Many US airlines are getting ready to fly into Cuba and Florida is is where it all starts. Florida has the largest concentration of Cuban immigrants in the USA. In 2013, more than three-quarters of the roughly 1.1 million Cuban immigrants lived in the Sunshine State, Migration Policy Institute analysis of US Census Bureau data shows.

Airlines are well aware of this fact.

 “Florida is where most Cuban Americans live and will have the most opportunity,” says David Harvey, senior director of network planning and performance at Southwest Airlines, at the Routes Americas forum in San Juan today.

 The Dallas-based carrier’s Fort Lauderdale base is “right at the top” of its list of potential US gateways for any of the new 110 Cuba frequencies it may seek from the US Department of Transportation, he says.

 “We are actively assessing how we want to approach Cuba,” says Harvey who will not commit to whether or not Southwest will seek any of the frequencies.

 US and Cuban officials signed the new bilateral air services agreement on 16 February, the first such agreement since the 1950s. There are 20 daily frequencies to Havana and 10 daily frequencies each to Camaguey, Cayo Coco, Cayo Largo, Cienfuegos, Holguin, Manzanillo, Santa Clara, Santiago de Cuba and Varadero available to US carriers under the deal.

 “We plan to apply for multiple destinations in Cuba,” says Dave Clark, vice-president of network planning at JetBlue, at the forum.

The New York-based carrier plans to seek authority to serve multiple points in Cuba from Fort Lauderdale, where it operates a base, but will also seek authorities from other US gateways, including New York John F Kennedy International and Tampa International airports, he says.

 “Cuba fits very well with our network,” says Clark, pointing to the large Cuban American populations in its focus cities, including Fort Lauderdale and New York.

 JetBlue and Southwest are far from alone in gunning for the Florida-Cuba market. American Airlines has said that it will seek service to the country from Miami, arguably the center of the Cuban community in the USA.

  Fort Lauderdale-based Silver Airways sees a lot of opportunity to operate its fleet of small 34-seat Saab 340Bs in the market.

The regional carrier will focus on serving markets in Cuba that may not be able to handle a daily flight on a Boeing 737 or Embraer 190, he says reiterating comments he made in December 2015.

Asked if Silver would seek frequencies to all nine of the cities outside Havana that are approved for new flights, that no final decision has been made but that most of those cities are “viable opportunities”.

 Applications for the 110 available Cuba frequencies are due with the regulator on 2 March. The DOT anticipates scheduled air service to Cuba beginning by the third quarter.

Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, neither of which have hubs in Florida, also say they will seek some of the Cuba frequencies from their key gateways. These likely include Atlanta and New York for Delta and Houston and Newark for United.

Fabrizio Poli is Managing Partner of Aircraft Trading Company Tyrus Wings. He is also an accomplished Airline Transport Pilot having flown both private Jets and for the airlines. Fabrizio is also a bestselling author and inspirational speaker & has been featured in the #Bloomberg, Chicago Tribune, Daily Telegraph, Billionaire.com, Wealth X, Financial Times, El Financiero and many other Media offering insight on the aviation world. Fabrizio is also considered one of the world's top 30 experts in using Linkedin for business. You can tune in weekly to Fabrizio's business Podcast Living Outside the Cube available both in video & audio. You can also follow Fabrizio's aviation videos on Tyrus Wings TV.

You can contact Fabrizio on:

fabrizio.poli@tyruswings.com
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