By TED JACKOVICS | The Tampa Tribune. The inaugural charter flights from Tampa International Airport to Havana next week are sold out, airport officials said today, but reservations are available for flights later in the month. Two services are scheduled to fly weekly round-trips between Tampa and Cuba, XAEL Charters using SkyKing Airlines aircraft on Thursdays and ABC Charters with American Airlines aircraft on Saturdays.">By TED JACKOVICS | The Tampa Tribune. The inaugural charter flights from Tampa International Airport to Havana next week are sold out, airport officials said today, but reservations are available for flights later in the month. Two services are scheduled to fly weekly round-trips between Tampa and Cuba, XAEL Charters using SkyKing Airlines aircraft on Thursdays and ABC Charters with American Airlines aircraft on Saturdays.">

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First flights from Tampa to Cuba sold out

By TED JACKOVICS | The Tampa Tribune. The inaugural charter flights from Tampa International Airport to Havana next week are sold out, airport officials said today, but reservations are available for flights later in the month.

Two services are scheduled to fly weekly round-trips between Tampa and Cuba, XAEL Charters using SkyKing Airlines aircraft on Thursdays and ABC Charters with American Airlines aircraft on Saturdays.

A third charter service, Island Travel & tours, Ltd., plans Tampa-Havana flights beginning in October.

The flights restore air service between Tampa and Cuba discontinued 50 years ago after Cuba-U.S. political relations soured.

Cuba-U.S. charter air service has been allowed in recent years from Miami, New York and Los Angeles.

Tampa International is one of eight in the United States and one in Puerto Rico that gained government permission for Cuban charter flights this year.

On Tuesday, representatives of the three charter services, a dozen travel agencies and the airport will gather in Ybor City to provide the public with flight information. The program from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. is at The Cuban Club at 2010 Avenida Republica de Cuba.

In today's Thursday's Hillsborough County Aviation Authority board action:

    -Approved the fiscal 2012 budget projecting $178 million in operating revenue, 3.2 percent more than this year.

 - Voted 4-1, with Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn opposed, to overrule a staff recommendation to hire Ricondo & Associates Inc., and instead approved HNTB Corp., for $2.7 million in contracts for a master plan update and a plan to enhance the main terminal's capacity. The primary rationale was that Ricondo prepared the last master plan update and fresh eyes would be advantageous.

- Noted that Frontier Airlines will resume flights at Tampa International serving Milwaukee and Omaha in December. Frontier last year scheduled those flights from St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport. Frontier also will serve Des Moines from Tampa along with its Denver route.

 - Swore in Gov. Rick Scott appointee Robert Watkins, a Tampa certified public accountant, to succeed Al Austin, who served 12 years on the board. Airport chief executive Joe Lopano invited Austin to become the first member of the newly formed "Friends Of Tampa International Airport," past board members invited to return to the airport for regular briefings.

(813) 259-7817

Source: www2.tbo.com/news/business/2011/sep/01/first-flights-from-tampa-to-cuba-sold-out-ar-254610/

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