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02/08/13 - Miami Herald - Aircharter 'queen' finds arranging trips to Cuba is risky business

For Vivian Mannerud, president of one of the oldest Cuba travel companies
in Miami, the past two years could be described as the agony and the
ecstasy.

Scene one: Her company, Airline Brokers, organizes the first charter
service from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to Cuba in
more than 50 years. Mannerud hands out maracas and straw hats to passengers
on the Sept. 17, 2011, inaugural flight. Her company also offers several
weekly flights from Miami to Cuba.

Scene two: She joyfully waves her arms in the front row as Pope Benedict
XVI celebrates Mass in Santiago, Cuba, in March after she makes all the
travel arrangements for a Miami Archdiocese pilgrimage for the papal visit.

Scene three: A month later, she stands tearfully outside the hulk of her
firebombed Coral Gables office. Around 3:30 a.m. on April 27, someone
tossed a chunk of pavement through a window and ignited an accelerant-fed
fire.

Then there's the cyber-attack on her reservations system, the mysterious
flat-tire incident, and a fraud perpetrated by someone using a phone number
from her burned-out business.

But the most devastating blow came in November when Cuba abruptly suspended
landing rights for her charter business, forcing one of the area's longest
and most controversial Cuba charter business to shift strategy. Mannerud no
longer operates her frequent charters to Cuba, scaling back to mostly
travel-related services to people heading to the island.

Through the years, Mannerud and other charter companies have been lighting
rods for criticism from some exiles who think travel to Cuba enriches the
Cuban government. Ninoska Pérez Castellón, a Miami radio commentator, says
Mannerud's longtime dealings with Havana has hurt her reputation in the
exile community.

"The charter business is almost like a concession with the Cuban
government,'' Pérez said.

Mannerud is nothing if not resilient. Her company is no longer arranging
charter flights to Cuba. But she's still in business.

She now occupies new offices several block from her old space. The fire,
she said, "is classified as a case of domestic terrorism,'' but the FBI's
Miami office would not confirm that.

The company now sells tickets to Cuba on other charter airlines, arranges
rental cars and hotels, handles passport services and is getting permission
to handle remittances to Cuba.

"We're trying to create a one-stop shop here,'' said Mannerud, a
Cuban-American who favors lifting the embargo.

Mannerud also is reviving another aspect of her business: arranging
charters for teams and other athletic organizations.

"Other than that, I have no immediate plans of returning to the charter
business,'' Mannerud said. "The business has changed in the past 30 years
and the cancellation of landing rights was difficult and painful for me.''

Since 1982, Mannerud has been ferrying Cuban families, politicians,
athletes and humanitarian supplies to Cuba. She left the business for
several years as she battled cancer but returned in 2009 after the Obama
administration began allowing Cuban-Americans to make unlimited family
visits to the island. The charter companies also were allowed to fly new
routes to Cuba from more U.S. cities.

As Cuban-Americans and other Americans on people-to-people tours made as
many as 400,000 trips a year to Cuba, the charter business became more
competitive, the Cubans more demanding and the business not particularly
profitable.


Original Source / Fuente Original:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/07/3222708/air-charter-queen-finds-arranging.html