The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has cleared six domestic airlines for flights to Cuba as early as this fall.

The move is part of the Obama Administration's overall effort to normalize relations with Cuba with the flights coming from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Chicago, Philadelphia and Minneapolis/St. Paul.

President Obama Reestablishes Cuban Relations

"Last year, President Obama announced that it was time to 'begin a new journey' with the Cuban people," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. "Today, we are delivering on his promise by relaunching scheduled air service to Cuba after more than half a century."

It was nearly four months ago that Foxx and Department of State Assistant Secretary for Economic and Business Affairs Charles Rivkin signed a non-legally-binding arrangement to reestablish scheduled air service between the two countries. At the time of the signing, government officials announced that scheduled service would commence sometime this year.

The carriers receiving the awards are American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Silver Airways, Southwest Airlines and Sun Country Airlines. The nine Cuban cities where flights will now be made to and from are Camagüey, Cayo Coco, Cayo Largo, Cienfuegos, Holguín, Manzanillo, Matanzas, Santa Clara and Santiago de Cuba.

Plan Calls for 10 Daily Roundtrip Flights From U.S.

With the new initiative, each country is now authorized to operate up to 10 daily round-trip flights between the U.S. and each of Cuba's nine international airports, other than Havana, for a total of 90 daily round-trips.

Over the long term, the arrangement also provides for up to 20 daily round-trip flights between the U.S. and Havana. In all, U.S. carriers have requested roughly 60 flights per day to Havana, thus requiring DOT to select from among proposals submitted by the different carriers.

Authorities add a decision on the Havana routes will be publicly announced later this summer.

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