Just two weeks after a Fort Lauderdale company publicly complained of government delays on its application for ferry service to Cuba, a U.S. Treasury agency has denied the request.

Officials at Havana Ferry Partners say they will appeal. Its executives see no reason why U.S. authorities allow planes to carry U.S. passengers to Cuba but not ferries. Current U.S. regulations allow both "aircraft and vessels" to serve Cuba as an exception to the U.S. embargo against the communist-led island.

"We're not going away," said Leonard Moecklin Sr., Havana Ferry's managing partner.

The denial came from the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which oversees the 50-year-old U.S. embargo against Cuba. Its Feb. 27 letter said ferry service to Cuba is "beyond the scope of current policy."

Moecklin said his company has contracted Washington, D.C. law firm Arent Fox and its senior policy adviser, former U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota, to press its case. Dorgan was the author of the 2000 law opening U.S. food sales to Cuba and played a key role in drafting its regulations as he worked to boost North Dakota's exports of beans and other agricultural products.

Havana Ferry Partners is among a handful of U.S. and international companies that want to offer Florida-Cuba ferry service, which had been popular before the embargo. It first applied for a license in 2010. Also interested in the route are Orlando's United Caribbean Lines, Paris' Unishipping and Spain's Balearia, among others.

Moecklin thinks U.S. authorities overlooked ferries last year when they expanded the list of U.S. airports authorized to offer charter flights to Cuba. Those airports now include Fort Lauderdale.

Broward County leaders, from the mayor to port officials, have backed requests for Cuba flights and ferries, hoping the area can cash in if Americans eventually travel freely to the island. Havana Ferry estimates its service alone could create hundreds of full-time and part-time jobs in the county.

Havana Ferry wants to operate a ferry that can hold 500 to 600 passengers and luggage and later, haul freight and vehicles. For now, U.S. passengers would be mostly Cuban-Americans, who are allowed by the Obama administration to visit family on the island whenever they wish.

The Fort Lauderdale company hopes to sell ferry tickets at prices at least $50 cheaper than Florida-Cuba charter flights, which now start at about $400 round-trip.

"The market is waiting for this ferry to open up," Moecklin said. "We can help people that can't afford a $500 flight and the cost of overweight luggage."