AZB...just wait until we start services to HAV....ATL-HAV...LOL
I wouldn't hold your breath.
The reason Cuba flights are so expensive is the total lack of direct competition. Cubana and AeroCaribbean (both state entites) have nearly total control of access to the island on all routes except Canada, where there is a little more competition from charters.
From The DR there are, as far as I know 3 options
Cubana SDQ-HAV on an utterly decrepit Soviet aircraft with service only once or twice a week
AeroCaribbean with ATR propeller service from SDQ-SCU (I think this is only once a week)
Copa, via Panama. Which is just as expensive if not more, but you will have an infinitely better chance of making it alive than on the Cuban airlines, but considering you have to fly all the way to Panama, than another flight almost equally as long to HAV, no wonder why its so expensive.
Besides charters, relatively few foreign airlines serve Cuba.
Mexicana via Cancun
Bahamasair via Nassau
Taca via San Jose, Costa Rica
Copa, via Panama City
Air Canada via Toronto
Air Jamaica
Cayman airways
Iberia via Madrid
Air Europa via Madrid
All flights to/from the US are charters. (A US travel agency licensed by the US government to transport eligible passengers to Cuba charters an entire aircraft and sells seats on the plane.) US Customs goes through absolutely everything baggage wise(you are strictly limited to 44lbs your own personal effects including cabin baggage) and interviews passengers before departure. Most of the travel agencies require arrival at the airport 6 hours before departure.