Corporate pilot and Cuba travel specialist Eric Norber, who has owned a company that creates specialty travel packages to the island for the past quarter century, today launched a new company, Cuba Handling, to focus on private aircraft flights to the Caribbean nation. Cuba Handling will secure aircraft permits, flight logistics, visas and passenger itineraries for those traveling in their own or chartered aircraft under the modified terms of the 50-year-old embargo that still remains in effect.

“I fell in love with the spirit and culture of Cuba when I first visited in 1990 and created [Cultural Contrast] to allow legal cultural exchanges between Americans and Cubans,” said Norber. This firm has organized hundreds of private tours to Cuba focused on religion, arts, theater, sports and culinary arts, among others.

Most recently, he organized a VIP program in Cuba for the board of directors of a major U.S. aviation advocacy organization, which included the first recorded all-female crew to land a private aircraft in Cuba in at least 60 years.

“Cuba, while friendly and warm, is still a complicated destination for a private aircraft,” Norber said. “There are restrictions, bureaucracy, cultural innuendos and delicate situations to navigate that can make the difference between a delightful, memorable trip and one fraught with problems—both legal and logistical.”

Cuba Handling also offers the benefit of pre-paying for aircraft services and customized itineraries, avoiding the necessity of paying for those services in cash upon arrival in Cuba. U.S.-based credit cards are generally not accepted in Cuba, and U.S. money must be exchanged into Cuban Convertible Pesos, with a 13-percent service charge.