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BWI Charter Flights To Cuba Postponed Until Fall

LINTHICUM, Md. (AP) -- Anyone hoping to catch a flight to Cuba next month from Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport will have to wait until fall.

Weekly flights were to begin on March 21, days before Pope Benedict XVI's planned visit the communist island nation.

But the travel agency arranging the flights, Island Travel & Tours, tells The Washington Post that interest didn't translate into ticket sales. The agency will try again in October.

BWI is among several new markets that had received approval to provide service to Cuba by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Cold War-era federal restrictions still prohibit U.S. citizens from traveling to Cuba as tourists, but flights are open to academics, journalists, religious institutions, cultural groups and other organizations that can show other purposes for a visit.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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