Airline Brokers Company to Offer Direct Charter Flights to Cuba from Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport

FORT LAUDERDALE – Airline Brokers Company, Inc. (“Airline Brokers”), a pioneer in the Cuba air travel industry, will commence its Fort Lauderdale – Havana charter service on September 12, 2011.

JetBlue Airways will operate the charter service with its spacious Airbus A320 aircraft. The aircraft offers an in-flight entertainment system with more than 140 free channels of live television and satellite radio at each seat (a), more legroom than any other U.S. carrier in coach (b), leather seats, and the airline’s award-winning customer service.

“We’re very excited to be offering JetBlue’s quality service to our licensed passengers,” said Vivian Mannerud, President of Airline Brokers. “JetBlue’s well-acclaimed aircraft offers a superb level of cost-effective luxury that our clients have been craving for quite some time. In addition, passengers connecting from other states will find it economical to fly into Fort Lauderdale.”

“Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) is pleased to offer South Florida’s large Cuban-American population a new alternative for flights to Cuba,” said Kent George, A.A.E., Director of Aviation, Broward County Aviation Department. “The new charter flights will strengthen FLL’s position as a gateway to the Caribbean and to South/Central America.”

Airline Brokers is an OFAC licensed charter operator founded in 1982 by Vivian Mannerud. It is headquartered in Coral Gables and has an office in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Since its establishment, Airline Brokers has arranged chartered air transportation to several domestic and international locations, specializing in travel to Cuba. The company currently offers nine weekly chartered flights from Miami International Airport to/from Havana and Cienfuegos, Cuba.

Over the past 28 years, Airline Brokers has assisted hundreds of thousands of legally licensed travelers and groups reconnect with family or participate in licensed academic, intellectual, cultural, scientific, humanitarian, and religious activities in Cuba.

Vivian Mannerud, President and CEO of Airline Brokers, said, “I was extremely pleased to hear that the U.S. government allowed Cuba charter flights to operate from added airports around the country. This makes it much easier and more affordable for Cuban-born U.S. citizens to visit their homeland and reunite with their families as well as educational and religious travelers flying into Havana, through Fort Lauderdale, from all over the country. There is no greater joy for me than knowing that my team and I will help make that reunion happen.”

These charter flights will be the first flights between Fort Lauderdale and the island of Cuba, another first for Airline Brokers. “We were the first to help major carriers enter the Cuba market, and the first to offer service into the provinces of Holguin and Santiago in Cuba,” said Mannerud.