Letter to Secretary Foxx - Urging Department of Transportation to Consider Sun Country for New Direct Flight From Minnesota to Cuba

Letter

We write in support of your efforts to increase commercial air travel to Cuba and in support of the application of Sun Country Airlines to provide direct service between Minneapolis/St. Paul and the Cuban airports serving Havana, Matanzas, and Santa Clara.

The recent signing of the U.S. -- Cuba civil aviation accord will open up new economic opportunities for American businesses and travelers and paves the way for regular flights between the U.S. and Cuba. These flights will allow Americans to engage with the Cuban people -- who are ahead of their government on economic policy and human rights -- and support the hundreds of thousands of small businesses, called cuentapropistas, owned by the people of Cuba.

It is our hope that as you decide which airlines will operate the new daily flights to Cuba and, particularly, the twenty new flights to Havana, you will consider small American businesses like Sun Country Airlines. Granting frequency allocations to smaller air carriers like Sun Country would maximize public benefits by helping ensure that air travel markets between the U.S. and Cuba are not concentrated in the hands of a few, large dominant carriers. Moreover, Sun Country, based in The Twin Cities, has already shown its ability to conduct successful regular flights to Cuba, having provided charter service for Cuba Travel Services for travel to and from Cuba between 2013 and 2015.

Sun Country is the only airline bidding for direct flights between Minnesota and Cuba, and these routes would continue to promote the important economic and cultural interests our state has in Cuba.