Tentative OK Given For Flights To Cuba From 10 U.S. Cities

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WASHINGTON, D.C. (CBSMiami/AP) -- Calling all passengers, service to Havana is ready to board.

The U.S. government has tentatively approved scheduled commercial airline service to Havana, Cuba from 10 U.S. cities -- a major step in President Barack Obama's effort to normalize relations with Cuba.

Currently, only charter flights are approved to fly to the Cuban capital. Now, the Department of transportation has given preliminary approval for eight airlines to fly to Havana, with more than half of those flights expected to come from Miami and Ft. Lauderdale.

"I think that would be awesome because this charter thing is killing us," said San Francisco resident Amilcar Garcia, boarding a charter flight to Cuba. "Prices are over the top, I can't wait for this to happen. We can't wait."

As it is now, they're forced to buy separate tickets for each leg -- and it's expensive.

"All four of us together... $2,000 from Miami to Cuba," said traveler Nicole Garcia. "From San Francisco to Miami, we paid like $1,600."

With regularly scheduled flights, prices will likely come down because of competition. And buying tickets will be much easier -- instead of using a charter company, you can simply go to your favorite airline's web site.

"You can get online go to aa.com, look where you want to fly in Cuba and click, purchase and you're done," said Ralph Lopez of American Airlines.

20 flights to Havana are approved from the U.S., six of which are from Miami.

Delta and Frontier have one apiece, American Airlines has four. From Ft. Lauderdale, there are also six flights, two each on Southwest, Spirit and JetBlue. You'll have plenty of choices.

"I hope to use points, make life a lot easier, travel a lot easier, as well," said Bill Reaves.

However, there's still a catch -- not just anyone can go. Going for the sake of tourism is still not permitted. You have to fall under one of 12 categories approved the U.S. Treasury.

The decision won't be final until later this summer -- so there's time for the public to comment.

For more information on the preliminary approvals to Havana, including the city pairings, click here.