After much hoopla and celebrations over Maryland's BWI airport receiving permission from the U.S. government to conduct tourist flights to Cuba, the whole project has been put on hold until October. The reason? Not many people who would fly out of Baltimore seem all that interested in vacationing at the Caribbean's largest slave plantation.

BWI charter flights to Cuba postponed until fall

Anyone hoping to catch a flight to Cuba next month from Baltimore’s airport will have to wait until the fall.

Weekly flights from Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport were to begin on March 21, days before Pope Benedict XVI’s planned visit to 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 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 travel purposes.