US, Cuba to sign agreement resuming regular flights

In this Aug. 14, 2015 file photo, the airplane carrying U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry prepares to depart the airport in Havana, Cuba, after the reopening of the U.S. Embassy after 54 years of broken diplomatic relations. The United States and Cuba will sign an agreement in late Feb. 2016 to resume commercial air traffic for the first time in five decades, U.S. officials said Friday, Feb. 12, 2016, starting the clock on dozens of new flights operating daily by next fall. AP File Photo

WASHINGTON, United States—The United States and Cuba will sign a bilateral agreement Tuesday to restore regular flights between the two countries after more than half a century, the State Department said.

“While US law prohibits travel to Cuba for tourist activities, this arrangement will facilitate authorized travel,” the State Department said Friday in a statement.

The United States announced plans to resume the flights in December, on the one-year anniversary of the start of reconciliation between Washington and Havana.

READ: The Latest: US, Cuba to open embassies to restore ties

Under the new arrangement, airlines in the two countries can now strike deals in such areas as code-sharing and aircraft leasing, the Cuban Embassy said at the time.

However, tourist travel still remains illegal because the trade embargo that the Americans slapped on Cuba in 1960 after Fidel Castro came to power in a communist revolution remains in effect.

The State Department said flights are expected to be re-established later this year and will “enhance traveler choices and strengthen people-to-people links between the two countries.”

READ: US, Cuba reach understanding on restoring commercial flights

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Assistant Secretary of State Charles Rivkin will travel to Havana for the signing.

Commercial flights between Cuba and the United States were cancelled 53 years ago but since the mid-1970s authorized charter flights have been allowed under certain conditions.

The State Department said that the new arrangement “will continue to allow charter flight operations.”

The United States and Cuba formally restored diplomatic relations in July and re-opened embassies in each other’s capitals.