Data from the Cuban National Office of Statistics

31 CFR Part 515, which governs the US’s Cuba sanctions, was amended last Friday to reflect President Obama’s December 17 promise to “increase travel, commerce, and the flow of information to and from Cuba.”

Although visiting the island nation for purely touristic reasons is still verboten, the new regulations have made travel easier for those able to demonstrate at least one of 12 officially sanctioned purposes; among those purposes: visiting relatives, conducting journalistic activities, and importing or exporting informational materials.

The changes, which touch on everything from remittances to micro-financing, also include a “general license” for travel service providers, meaning that airlines, charter companies, and ticket agents will no longer require case-by-case approval to operate between the US and Cuba.

For the time being, however, charter flights remain the only available mode of air transport from the US to Cuba. The Department of Transportation—not the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which is responsible for administering the sanctions—will determine when and how air carriers can go about establishing scheduled flights to Cuba.

No word yet on any connections from BWI to HAV.