US Authorities Against Icelandic Flights to Cuba
Campaign News | Wednesday, 28 November 2007
Iceland Review On-line
US authorities have requested that American aerospace company Boeing not trade with Icelandair Group or Air Atlanta Icelandic in relation to their flights to Cuba, which is considered a violation of the Cuba embargo.
According to DV, both airlines have the right to fly to Cuba, but US authorities are against American airplanes being involved. Most of the airplanes the airlines operate are made and serviced by Boeing.
“Loftleidir [an Icelandair Group subsidiary] used Boeing airplanes in the flights to Cuba and we decided not to use them anymore,” said Icelandair’s public relations agent Gudjón Arngrímsson, confirming that this issue had come up earlier this year. “We are on good terms with Boeing and are cooperating with them on solving this issue.”
Director of Atlanta Hannes Hilmarsson told DV that Boeing had recently contacted him regarding the company’s cooperation with the Cuban airline Cubana in 2005. “Then we wrote a letter to US authorities confirming that we had cooperated with Cubana without realizing it was in violation of American regulations.”
“We do not expect that this will become a big problem,” Hilmarsson said, adding Atlanta will not fly for Cubana anymore while the Cuba embargo is in effect.
