Regularly scheduled commercial flights between the United States and Cuba could be taking off by the end of the year if Washington, D.C. and Havana reach an agreement on the issue, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Following the rapprochement between the two countries that culminated in last week's reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Havana, the Obama administration apparently wants the flights to be available as soon as possible. Meanwhile, airlines are getting ready to include new routes in their schedules, the Miami Herald noted.

The agreement administration officials are seeking with their Cuban counterparts would expand options for U.S. travelers without requiring Congress to ease travel restrictions linked to the five-decade-old embargo against the island nation, Bloomberg Business explained. Lifting the embargo is a move that is strongly opposed by many in the Republican majority.

Any deal would be welcome news for traveler Howard Kass, American Airlines Group's vice president of regulatory affairs. He told Bloomberg, "We are looking forward to the governments getting a bilateral worked out and looking forward to opening up scheduled Cuba service as soon as we possibly can."

American Airlines, which has operated charter flights to Cuba since 1991, said on Tuesday that it would begin nonstop service later this year between Los Angeles and Havana, thus offering Cuba's first direct connection to the West Coast in many years. The service, offered on narrow-body Boeing 737s, will still be a charter flight.

Meanwhile, U.S. carriers are monitoring the developments to see if and when scheduled flights to Cuba, which have been heavily restricted since 1963, can once again commence. But Scott Laurence, the senior vice president of airline planning at JetBlue -- which currently offers charters from New York and the Florida cities of Tampa and Fort Lauderdale -- said reliable predictions were hard to come by.

"We're ready to go, and I think we're just waiting on the process," he said. "I will tell you I am on the edge of my seat. We're incredibly excited about this."