Havana, January 18 (RHC)-- For the first time in more than 50 years, a commercial passenger aircraft has flown from Key West, Florida to Havana, Cuba, reestablishing the direct connection the two cities, the blog “In Transit” recently reported.

On the morning of December 30th, United States Customs and Border Protection gave the final approval necessary for a small Cessna Conquest II air craft, owned by Key West Executive Air Charter, to take off from the Key West International Airport.

The flight carried a handful of members of the Florida Keys Tropical Research Ecological Exchange Institute, which organizes educational trips to Cuba for U.S. citizens.

The trip is possible under the Obama administration's “people to people” cultural exchange programs that allow licensed agencies and organizations to take United States travelers to Cuba under tight travel agendas.

However, whether the Key West flights would become a regular occurrence is still unclear. U.S. travel to Cuba has been outlawed for more than half a century under the economic and political blockade imposed by Washington on the Caribbean island.