Flight from Miami to Havana the first from U.S. in 50 years

MIAMI, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- For the first time since Fidel Castro took power in Cuba -- and just days following his death -- U.S. airlines resurrected commercial air service to Havana on Monday.

Multiple American carriers began flying to Havana on Monday, but American Airlines Flight 17 out of Miami at 7:23 a.m. EST was the first. It arrived in Havana about an hour later.

"We were the last country with the embargo. I think it's time to normalize things," passenger Daniel Lewis told NBC Miami Monday.

The return flight from Havana to Miami, Flight 2678, arrived at 10:38 a.m.

Deputy Secretary of Transportation Victor Mendez was on the flight.

"The return of scheduled, commercial air travel, is bringing together families, providing important education and cultural benefits to both countries, and opening up business and economic opportunities," he said in a statement. "In the days ahead, the Cuban people will recall the past and also look to the future."

The U.S. government approved the restarting of American service to Havana earlier this year as part of President Barack Obama's efforts to improve relations between the two countries after more than a half-century of severed diplomatic ties.

Castro seized power in 1959 and installed a communist regime aligned with the former Soviet Union. The political change resulted in decades of cold relations and serious conflict, as well as a crippling 1961 U.S. trade embargo that effectively barred most forms of business interaction between Cuba and the United States.

Although several sanctions and travel restrictions against Cuba have been lifted by the Obama administration within the last year, the embargo still stands.

Castro died Saturday at the age of 90. His brother Raul is the current president of Cuba.

JetBlue Airways launched its Havana service Monday with a flight out of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City at 9:27 a.m., which arrived on the Caribbean island nearly three and-a-half hours later.

Delta Air Lines will launch its Havana service on Dec. 1, also from New York's JFK.

U.S. carriers began flying to other destinations on the Cuban island for the first time since the 1960s in August.

Several other airlines were approved for Havana service in July, including United, Southwest, Alaska and Frontier.