WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representative Kathy Castor announced today that she is stepping up pressure on the Obama Administration to approve charter airline flights from Tampa International Airport to Cuba by signing on to the bill that will open travel to Cuba by all Americans. 

“There is great potential for new jobs and economic growth throughout the Tampa Bay area if travel and trade opportunities are expanded over the coming years.  The Port of Tampa, Tampa International Airport, area businesses and our neighbors are well positioned for new economic opportunities,” Castor said.

Castor is the only member of Congress from Florida to call for modernization of the longstanding ban on traveling to Cuba.

“The approval of Tampa as a Cuba charter flight airport combined with a new ability of all U.S. citizens and legal residents to travel to Cuba would boost our region’s economy and create new jobs,” Castor said.

“Our State of Florida and our Port of Tampa are poised to take on these new business opportunities.  This change is needed and it is overdue,” said Jose Valiente, Director & Chairman of the Tampa Bay-Cuba Business Council of the World Trade Center of Tampa Bay.  “And Congresswoman Castor is right to champion Direct Charter flights from Tampa.  Lifting the travel ban to Cuba and establishing direct flights between Tampa and Havana, not only would represent tremendous savings and less hardship to travelers and welcomed new business, but it will generate approximately $420,000 per month for the Tampa Aviation Authority.”

“If the travel ban is lifted, Cuban-Americans would be able to visit friends and reestablish ties to Cuba.  Tampa area families and educators could expand educational and cultural exchanges and learn more about the rich heritage of Tampa’s Cuban-Americans,” Castor said. “Now is the time to remove the obstacles and hassles that have prevented Cuban-Americans without direct family ties and other Floridians from traveling to Cuba, and for our region to reap the benefits that freedom of travel can bring.”  Castor will cosponsor H.R. 874 by U.S. Representative Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act, which currently has 178 cosponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Castor also is renewing her call to add Tampa International Airport as a port of entry and exit for charter flights to Cuba. “Tampa Bay families traveling to and from Cuba are suffering economic hardship and severe inconvenience by having to travel to Miami in order to fly to Cuba.” She continues discussions with the Obama Administration on this important next step for Florida families.  In 2008, Castor urged then-President-Elect Obama to fulfill his campaign promise swiftly by issuing an executive order to lift travel restrictions on family travel to Cuba and to increase the amount of monetary remittance that families could send to relatives in Cuba.  President Obama adopted these actions after taking office.

“I also will continue to call for improved human rights in Cuba and believe that improved travel, education and cultural exchanges can provide greater attention to human rights. Cuban human rights activists concur, and the negotiated release of 52 political prisoners by the Catholic Church is a positive step,” Castor said.

“A week does not pass when a Tampa Bay area family with a personal family challenge does not communicate with me or my office for assistance with family travel to Cuba, particularly when relatives are sick or dying in Cuba or in the Tampa Bay area,” noted Castor.  Currently charter flights to Cuba are only available from Los Angeles, New York and Miami.  The Tampa Bay area has the fifth largest population of Cuban Americans in the United States.