Satellite Imagery from Google Earth

With President Obama’s announcement last Wednesday of his plans to normalize US-Cuban relations, it is worth remembering that BWI is one of just 19 US airports currently authorized to offer direct flights to the island nation and the only such airport in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area.

Deemed “suitable to accommodate flights between the US and Cuba” by US Customs and Border Protection in 2011, BWI has yet to host a charter company or air carrier capable of capitalizing on what would, at least in the short term, amount to a regional monopoly.

Island Travel and Tours Ltd., a Florida-based travel agency, tried to establish weekly service between Baltimore and Havana in 2012, but after its inaugural flight sold just six tickets, delayed and then scrapped the plan.

As the Baltimore Post Examiner points out, the fate of Island Travel’s venture was in line with national trends at the time: Of the 60 regularly scheduled US-Cuba charter flights operating in September 2012, only 45 were still flying in June 2013, lack of demand driving cancellations at airports in Tampa, Los Angeles, and San Juan.

Among other market-limiting factors are the 54-year-old US sanctions that, despite modest rollbacks in 2009 and 2011, continue to restrict travel to Cuba to those with officially sanctioned purposes, such as visiting “close relatives,” conducting academic research, and providing humanitarian aid.

In the coming weeks, however, the Treasury Department‘s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which is responsible for administering the sanctions, is expected to issue regulatory amendments aligning its policies to the president’s plan.

Although it is unclear precisely what form the OFAC’s new regulations will take, the promise of re-established diplomatic ties, a US embassy in Havana, and eased trade and travel restrictions bodes well for a BWI-HAV connection.