Direct flights from U.S. to Cuba expected to start soon
      MIAMI -- April 17, 1998 2:59 p.m. EDT -- Thousands of Cuban
 Americans are eagerly awaiting the resumption of direct flights from
 the United States to Cuba, part of an easing of U.S. policy toward
 the communist-ruled island, travel agents said Thursday.
     People have bombarded travel agents with phone calls trying to
 book seats on charter flights to their homeland barely 90 miles
 (145 kilometers) south of the Florida Keys.
     The move, announced by President Clinton March 20, should mean
 the end of a time-consuming, inconvenient journey via the Bahamas
 taken by many Cuban Americans wanting to visit their homeland since
 direct flights were suspended in 1996.
     "We are getting a lot of calls continuously," Vivian Mannerud,
 president of Miami-based ABC charters said. "People who are already
 booked for the months ahead want to know if they'll be able to fly
 direct."
     "Everybody's looking forward to it," she continued. "Visa appli-
 cations through travel agents have about doubled."
     But the charter operators said their plans are on hold until the
 Treasury Department announces details of regulations covering the
 flights. It will then take a few weeks of organization before the
 first plane takes off bound directly for Havana, they said.
     "We're hoping to hear by the end of the month. Nothing can be
 done until it comes out officially," said Armando Garcia, vice
 president of Marazul Charters.
               Visiting home for humanitarian reasons
     Clinton cleared the way for direct humanitarian charter flights
 to Cuba, remittances to relatives of up to $1200 a year and speeded
 up procedures for sales of medicine and medical supplies as part of
 a package easing the 36-year-old embargo against President Fidel
 Castro's communist government.
     Humanitarian aid agencies are also anxiously awaiting word from
 the U.S. government giving the final go-ahead.
     "We're ready to go," said Peter Coats, assistant to Bishop Thomas
 Wenski, who heads Miami's Roman Catholic Archdiocese Caritas relief
 program. "I have 15 pallets of disposable and durable medical
 supplies sitting in a warehouse."
     Caritas had hoped to ship the load two weeks ago and had applied
 for all the necessary documents. "We are kind of curious why it's
 taking them so long," he added.
     Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, passing through Miami
 Wednesday on her way to the Summit of the Americas in Santiago,
 Chile, said the flights would start soon.
     "There are some regulations and various procedures that have to
 be worked out but everybody's working on it and looking forward to
 having it happen soon," Albright said.
     The U.S. government has periodically suspended direct flights,
 last doing so in 1996 in response to the shooting down by Cuban
 fighter jets of two exile planes which were searching for refugees
 in the Florida Straits.
     But in reality many Cuban Americans, allowed one visit home per
 year for humanitarian reasons, still traveled to Cuba.
                       By any means necessary
     Flights now leave Miami for Cuba every day but Wednesday, trans-
 iting through the Bahamas. The ticket price is $399, which Garcia
 said he expected to drop by $100 for direct flights.
     Marazul sold a total of 15,000 seats last year from its offices
 in Miami and New Jersey, about 12,000 of them to Cuban Americans, he
 said.
     "If you've got your mother there, you want to go there. People
 want to fly because there's a real need," he said.
     Added Mannerud: "These indirect flights have taught people to
 break the law. It makes no sense."
     She estimated about 95,000 Cuban Americans traveled to Cuba last
 year. "They will go legally or illegally."
     Hard-line exile groups in Miami, where the topic of Castro and
 Cuba is a constant source of angst and argument, have condemned the
 direct flights. They oppose any easing of the embargo and say the
 direct flights will boost Castro.
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