In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.

JetBlue Flight 387 taxis on to the runway under a water canon salute as it departs for Cuba. On Wednesday, August 31, 2016, JetBlue became the first U.S. airline to initiate commercial flights with Cuba in more than 50 years, kicking off with a flight from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to Santa Clara. CARL JUSTE cjuste@miamiherald.com ||||| SHARE THIS ARTICLE Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email 
  
 America, did you miss the travel industry’s memo declaring Cuba the hottest new destination? 
  
 Apparently. Service to the long-time U.S. foe began in September, but after just five months the largest carrier to the island, American Airlines Group Inc., cut daily flights by 25 percent and switched to smaller jets on some routes. Meanwhile, Silver Airways Corp. reduced weekly flights to six Cuban cities and JetBlue Airways Corp. downsized its planes so as to match lower-than-expected demand. 
  
 “It’s going to take a really, really long time for [Cuba] to become a Caribbean destination that’s as popular as some of the other ones,” Andrew Levy, the chief financial officer for United Continental Holdings Inc., told Bloomberg News in November. 
  
 While the rest of the Caribbean is hopping with the U.S. winter break crowd, Cuba has some unique problems. The big one is that airlines, with no real idea about demand, were overly ambitious when they jousted for the limited routes allowed by U.S. regulators. With a mandate for only 110 daily U.S. flights—20 into Havana, the most popular destination—the carriers tumbled over each other last year to get a piece of the pie, leaving the island oversubscribed. 
  
 The air rush into Cuba “wasn’t based on demand but speculation. They had no history to look at,” said Karen Esposito, general manager of Cuba Travel Network, which specializes in tours to the island. Now they do. 
  
 Silver Airways described additional obstacles, pointing to the complications accompanying U.S. travel arrangements to Cuba, along with too much capacity from larger carriers. Still, spokeswoman Misty Pinson said, the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based airline “is optimistic about the future growth potential in Cuba.” 
  
 Obama’s Glasnost 
  
 Former President Barack Obama announced an opening of relations with Cuba in December 2014, calling previous U.S. policy, which sought to isolate the communist government, a failure. 
  
 Despite Obama’s efforts to spur U.S. engagement with the country, including a state visit in March, the 54-year-old U.S. embargo remains in place. The law prohibits tourism to the island by Americans and makes financial transactions burdensome. 
  
 Today, most people traveling to Cuba individually classify themselves as participants in “people-to-people” exchanges, one of the dozen categories authorizing travel under U.S. Treasury regulations. 
  
 The policy thaw led to an immediate surge by “early adopters” who wanted to see the tropical island, said Tom Popper, president of Insight Cuba, a tour operator in New Rochelle, N.Y. “The number of passengers we were sending tripled in very short order, and it lasted all of 2015 and most of 2016,” he said. “And much of that was just the extraordinary level of awareness” of the Cuba policy changes. 
  
 But with liberalization has come a painful lesson in capitalism—for tourists, anyway. The new interest in Cuba led to rapid price inflation (as much as 400 percent) for state-run hotels, taxis, and other traveler services—before any U.S. commercial flights had begun. Some rooms now cost as much as $650 per night, serving as a major deterrent to Americans hunting for novel warm-weather destinations. 
  
 Even the costs of classic car rides and dinners at popular paladares, private restaurants run by families, have in some cases tripled, Insight Cuba says. Prices have begun to moderate this year for the first time since 2014, the company said this week. But beyond the high prices lie additional difficulties for U.S. tourists. 
  
 Pounds of Dollars 
  
 “The airlines are also competing with limited hotel availability,” Popper said. And “you cannot pay for a room with a U.S. credit card, so you have to actually bring the cash. You’re going to be carrying around $2,500 to $3,000 in cash just to pay for the hotel room. And then you need to carry more cash to pay for other things you want to do.” 
  
 Cuba-curious Americans must also compete for winter lodging with sun-seekers from Canada and the U.K., who face no bureaucratic hurdles in booking their holiday. 
  
 The average round-trip airfare from the U.S. to Cuba did drop from $399 in September 2016 to $310 last month, according to data from Airlines Reporting Corp. That compares with an average of $486 for Cancun, the top Caribbean destination for U.S. travelers. But still, there are few Yankees heading to Havana. 
  
 Some may be worried that a trip would fall under a murky area of the U.S. law, unsure how much latitude is afforded by “people-to-people exchanges,” or cowed by the well-publicized aggressiveness of U.S. customs employees of late. No one wants to worry about that sort of thing while sipping an umbrella-adorned cocktail. 
  
 Barring a radical policy change by the new administration, such concerns are probably unwarranted, Cuba travel experts said, adding that the traveler counts this year are likely to top 2016. Said Popper: “There’s nobody from the federal government standing on the beach in Cuba.” 
  
 That may not be reassuring enough for the airlines, though. They’re not pushing Cuba as a leisure destination because of the legal uncertainties, said Michael Zuccato, general manager of Cuba Travel Services, a Los Angeles-area company that offers visa assistance and other traveler aid for customers of four carriers that serve Cuba. While airlines bear no liability if customers fib about the real reason they’re visiting Cuba, in-house lawyers may not want to push their luck. 
  
 “Because of the U.S. restrictions,” Zuccato said, “you really don’t see any advertising from the airlines promoting Cuba.” 
  
 Watch Next: Cuba's Secret Scuba Dive Site Is One of a Kind ||||| Cuba remains a hot-ticket destination for British travellers as airlines launch new routes and cruise tourism surges. But as the boom continues, confusion has taken hold over whether Britons are able to board the new direct US-Cuba flights. 
  
  
  
 Passengers flying to the Caribbean island from the UK with Virgin Atlantic (VA) have also experienced difficulties as the airline gets to grips with the ticketing system alongside its new partner, Delta. 
  
  
  
 Cuban infrastructure is struggling to cope with tourism, reports say Credit: Andrey Armyagov - Fotolia/Andrey Armyagov 
  
 Customers have been unable to book flights online by card, or use Air Miles plus money, and they must, instead, call a Cuba phoneline at Virgin Holidays. Miles then need to be converted into vouchers to be discounted against a normal fare. 
  
  
  
 VA said the issue was temporary, but Rob Miller, director of the UK-based Cuba Solidarity Campaign, accused the airline of discriminating against the communist nation. “Virgin Atlantic must end this discriminatory policy impacting on travellers wanting to use their Air Miles to travel to Cuba,” he said. “The US blockade is at the heart of this latest travel dispute. 
  
  
  
 “We have written to the British Government, and Virgin Atlantic, calling on them to take immediate action to ensure that all passengers are treated fairly whether they are travelling to Cuba or elsewhere.” 
  
 A VA spokesperson apologised for any inconvenience: “This is just a different way to pay for this route, on a temporary basis. We certainly aren’t discriminating against Cuba. However, our technology is currently restricted, meaning we can’t take bookings.” 
  
  
  
 The airline launches its second UK route direct to Cuba on April 2, to Varadero, otherwise known as Juan G Gomez airport. Thomson, too, is adding a route to Cayo Santa Maria from May; Thomas Cook’s inclusion of the small set of islands off the coast from 2018, takes its total of Cuban destinations to four. 
  
  
  
 Last year, 10 US airlines made the first direct flights to the island in more than 50 years, following a thaw in US-Cuba relations. Meanwhile, cruise firms cannot organise itineraries fast enough and the demand for hotel rooms has soared. In December Telegraph Travel reported how tour operators were halting bookings to the island as its infrastructure struggled to cope with demand. 
  
 In the summer Swiss chain Kempinski will open Cuba’s first truly glamorous five-star hotel, Gran Hotel Manzana Kempinski La Habana. Further luxury hotels will follow. 
  
  
  
 Less positive has been the ambiguity facing British travellers flying to Cuba from the US. Travel for tourism purposes remains illegal for US citizens under a trade embargo. They may only fly direct to Cuba for one of 12 reasons listed by the US Treasury’s Cuba sanctions office (OFAC). The same applies to Britons. Since self-certification (an honour system) for travel was permitted last year by the Obama administration, UK travellers, like US citizens, are ticking one of the officially-approved categories (educational) for travel on airline sites.​ 
  
 Comparison website cheapair.com advises: “Keep receipts for cultural activities to demonstrate your visit was filled with 'authorised’ travel activities… keep records of museums visited, local tours you took, cultural activities attended, etc… most of the time, no one will ask.” 
  
 The Foreign Office advises that travel between the US and Cuba is permitted as long as visitors comply with US law. The OFAC’s press office has not yet responded to our inquiries. |||||
It seems Cuba isn't the hot-spot destination US airlines thought it was going to be when they started offering flights to the communist nation for the first time in half a century last year. It started in November when American Airlines announced it was reducing its service to Cuba, the Miami Herald reports. According to Bloomberg, American Airlines cut total flights to Cuba by 25% and switched to smaller planes for some of its remaining flights. Silver Airways followed suit in December. Now JetBlue has announced it will be using smaller planes for its Cuba flights, reducing capacity by 300 seats per day. Meanwhile, so many British tourists are flocking to Cuba they're swamping the country's infrastructure, the Telegraph reports. So why aren't American tourists doing the same? First, it remains technically illegal to go to Cuba solely for tourism under the US embargo still in place. Most Americans who now visit do so under "people-to-people" exchanges, one of several allowed categories. The restrictions put pressure on would-be tourists to mislead the US government—though travel experts tell Bloomberg that enforcement isn't strict—and has made airlines nervous about advertising Cuba as a destination. And after US flights to Cuba were announced, prices on the island skyrocketed, making everything from hotels to taxis unusually expensive. Finally, because of the ongoing embargo, visitors to Cuba can't use American credit cards, meaning they have to carry thousands of dollars in cash to pay for hotels and everything else. (Here's the first Cuban export to the US.)