MADRID, Spain. – The American airline Delta Airlines will resume flights between Miami and Havana after a three-year hiatus. The inaugural flight is scheduled for April 10^th, leaving Miami at 9:05 a.m. and arriving at the José Martí International Airport around 10:20 a.m.

As explained by the airline on its official website, two daily flights are scheduled, to be operated on Airbus A320 crafts, with capacity for 157 passengers and three seating options: First Class, Delta Comfort+, and Main Cabin.

“All passengers will be able to select a variety of delicacies, including a diversity of small-brand items such as Kate’s Real Food Lemon Coconut bars, Thrive Farmers Tea, and Du Nord vodka,” informs the airline regarding available products on the flights.

Likewise, the website indicates that clients will be able to enjoy the Delta Studio as a courtesy, with more than one thousand hours of entertainment on board, featuring exclusive content chosen by partners like Peloton and Spotify.

It also offers the possibility of accessing WiFi connectivity on board. Passengers will be able to connect through messaging services such as WhatsApp, iMessage and Facebook Messenger.

Delta Airlines began flying to Cuba in 2016, after a 55-year hiatus. In March of 2020, it interrupted its flights to Cuba once again as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) reauthorized commercial and charter flights to nine Cuban airports outside of Havana as of June 2022. Although several companies had already reinstated their flights to the island, Delta had yet to announce its decision to resume services.

Before the pandemic, Delta was flying daily to Havana out of Atlanta, Georgia, city where its hub is located.

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MADRID, Spain. – Low-cost Mexican airline Viva Aerobus started a neew route to Havana this week from Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA, by its Spanish acronym), which was inaugurated in March of this year and is located in the state of México.

“We are inaugurating new routes from the new airport in Mexico City (AIFA). Do you know them already? Fly on our first international route round-trip to and from Havana, and on our temporary round-trip to and from Tijiuana,” stated the company on its Twitter account.

The inaugural flight from AIFA took off this December 14^th at 8:55 a.m.

Isidoro Pastor, AIFA’s General Manager, was quoted by Reportur as saying: “The growth of Viva Aerobus in our airport is proof of the quality of service and cutting-edge infrastructure with which we treat all our passengers. We are grateful for Viva Aerobus confidence and its commitment to strengthen connectivity in the Mexivo Valley metropolitan area. Together, we will continue to transport more passengers; at AIFA today, we are serving an average of over 8,000 passengers on a daily basis.”

Juan Carlos Zuazua, Viva Aerobus’ General Manager, said about the new flight to Cuba: “With this new route, we are connecting our capital city with a country with which México has great bonds.”

With this new flight, Cubans will have another path for leaving Cuba, since the majority of Cubans who are interested in leaving the island use México as a springboard to reach the United States, especially when the new destination, far from the Mexican capital, has no special tourist or commercial interest.

Viva Aerobus, which is running nine flights to Cuba, started its operations in the island in 2018.

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MIAMI, United States. – Iberojet airline, which belongs to Ávoris Corporación Empresarial, inaugurated on Friday, November 11^th its direct flight between Madrid and Santiago de Cuba, according to reports by tourism media.

Now, Iberojet has become the only airline company in Spain to offer a non-stop, roundtrip connection to Santiago de Cuba.

“The inauguration of this direct –and sold out- flight Madrid-Santiago de Cuba, shows the relevance of the Caribbean island to the Spanish market when the time comes to select a vacation destination. With this itinerary, in addition to providing travelers an alternative to the Havana destination, we want to show our firm decision to diversify travel destinations, so that our clients can have different and various options when the time comes for choosing a vacation destination,” stated Paul Verhagen, Iberojet Deputy Director.

In addition, the airline provides the possibility of combining the Santiago de Cuba and the Havana airports to fly in and out of Cuba.

According to the medium expreso, the new route is part of the airline’s present programming whose objective is to diversify destinations for the Spanish market and to offer new flights.

Expreso also indicated that the strengthening of connectivity with Santiago de Cuba had been made possible thanks to the collaboration between the Cuban government, the private sector, and all the actors that make up the value chain of a tourism destination.

In that sense, authorities of the Cuban regime celebrated the inauguration of the Madrid to Santiago de Cuba route.

“The arrival of this first Iberojet flight to the city of Santiago de Cuba is reason to celebrate in the whole country, since, with this new operative, we have the great opportunity to show the Spanish traveler another one of our patrimonial cities, some 800 KM from Havana, and which offers a great variety of tourist and leisure options,” stated María del Carmen Orellana, First Deputy Minister of Tourism in the island.

Also, Polish airline Lot announced this month that it would reinstate once-weekly flights to Cuba between the city of Katowice and the “Juan Gualberto Gómez” International Airport in Varadero during tourism high season.

In late October, we learnt that the airline Air Canada had reinstated its flights to Cuba, cancelled since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also, Aeromexico airline reinstated its flights to the island, with a frequency of seven flights in its route Mexico City to Havana. Aeromexico launched its operations in Cuba in 2011, and in 2020, stopped them due to coronavirus-related health restrictions.

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MADRID, Spain. – U.S. airline company United Airlines reinstated flights to Havana from the international airports in Houston, Texas and Newark, New Jersey.

According to information provided on social media by Cuba’s Airports and Airport Services Company (ECASA, by its Spanish acronym), the inaugural flight Houston-Havana took place in the morning of November 14^th (at 10:15 a.m.), and Newark-Havana that afternoon (at 2:30 p.m.).

Flights will operate once weekly, and last a little over three hours.

Last October, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) announced that it would allow United Airlines to temporarily delay the reinstatement of its flights to Cuba.

United had been working for three months to reinstate service to Havana, but requested an extension to be able to finish infrastructural work that would allow it to operate adequately in Terminal 3 at “José Martí” International Airport, and to renegotiate contracts with service providers.

Before border closures in March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, United Airlines operated seven weekly flights to Havana.

In June of this year, USDOT lifted several restrictions to flights to the island, restrictions that were established during Donald Trump’s presidency, and that prohibited, for instance, flights by U.S. airlines to Cuban airports outside the Cuban capital.

The elimination of restrictions was part of the measures announced by the Biden administration on May 16 “in support of the Cuban people.”

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MIAMI, United States. – Foreign tourists who visit Cuba will be able to remain in the Caribbean country for a period of 90 days, after the Cuban regime extended the visa validity period, which before allowed for a stay of only 30 days.

The measure went into effect on November 1^st, in what can be considered a strategy by Cuban authorities to boost the tourism sector in anticipation of tourist “high season”.

Cuba’s Minister of Tourism, Juan Carlos García Granda, stated that the 90-day visa can be renewed for another 90 days if the visitor so wishes.

“Starting November 1^st this year, the validity of tourist visas is extended to 90 days of allowed stay in national territory – renewable once for another 90 days- which allows for an extended stay to foreign visitors in Cuba,” stated the official in his Twitter account.

The digital portal Cubatrámite makes it clear that people who want to extend their stay in the island for a period greater than 90 days must file their request with the local unit of immigration -Dirección de Identificación, Inmigración y Extranjería (DIIE, by its Spanish acronym)- closest to their lodging facility.

Countries with which Cuba has agreements of visa extensions and whose citizens do not need to request a visa or a tourist card to enter the island are Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belorussia, Benin, Bosnia Herzegovina, China, Dominica, Grenada, Macedonia, Malaysia, Montenegro, Mongolia, Namibia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Serbia and Singapore.

Other foreign citizens who wish to fly to Cuba must request a visa or a tourist card, which can be acquired online or requested directly from a Cuban consulate abroad, depending on the case.

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MIAMI, United States. –  Polish airline Lot resumed flights to Cuba with an itinerary between the city of Katowice and “Juan Gualberto Gómez“ International Airport in Varadero, with a frequency of once per week during tourism high season, the official journal Excelencias informed.

According to Rolando Marichal Pineda, director of Cubanacán Travel Agency in Matanzas, the Ministry of Tourism hopes that as tourist high season progresses, the frequency of flights arriving from Poland will rise to two per week, as it was in prior periods.

According to the official, the Polish market is interested in several Cuban destinations, such as Viñales, in Pinar del Río and El Nicho, in Cienfuegos.

In late October, it was also learnt that the airline Air Canada had reinstated its flights to Cuba; flights which were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cuba’s Ministry of Tourism was quoted by the official news medium Cuban News Agency (Agencia Cubana de Noticias, ACN, by its Spanish acronym) as saying that for Air Canada, the frequency will be five direct flights to Havana.

The information highlights that for more than 10 years, Canada has been one of the principal tourist markets for Cuba, and direct flights have a special meaning today for tourism in the island.

ACN also informed about the airline Aeromexico reinstating its flights to Cuba with seven weekly flights from Mexico City to Havana. Aeromexico started operations in Cuba in 2011 and in 2020 halted operations due to coronavirus health restrictions.

In mid-October, Venezuela’s state airline Conviasa inaugurated air connection with Cuba from the state of Falcón, in order to consolidate commercial and tourism exchanges between the two countries, according to Ramón Celestino Velázquez, Minister of Transportation for Nicolás Maduro’s government.

Last September, Joe Biden’s administration agreed to expand U.S. flights to the island for the airlines JetBlue and American Airlines.

Other airline companies have increased flights to Cuba after being suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, among them the Spanish Word2Fly, owned by Iberostar tourism group, the Mexican Viva Aerobus, the Colombian Wingo and the Angolan TAAG-Líneas Aéreas.

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MIAMI, United States. – On Thursday, November 3, U.S. airline American Airlines reinstated its flights to the “Abel Santamaria” International Airport in the city of Santa Clara.

The route was inaugurated with a flight on a B-737 aircraft coming from Miami International Airport with 149 passengers aboard. After landing, the craft was “christened” under an arch formed by two hosed waterjets, a ritual observed to celebrate inaugural flights.

In the course of the present month, American Airlines will also reinstate routes to air terminals in Santiago de Cuba, Camagüey, Holguín and Varadero, thanks to authorization obtained in July of this year from the Biden administration.

In June of this year, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) approved American Airlines’ request to reinstate operations to several Cuba provinces, according to the agency Reuters.

The four destinations chosen by American Airlines for reinstating flights to points outside the capital were Varadero (Matanzas), Santa Clara (Villa Clara), Holguín and Santiago de Cuba.

In a communique from the airline to which Reuters had accessed, it is indicated that flights to those four destinations “will improve service and access between the United States and points outside of Havana, after more than two years of suspended services.”

Regular U.S. airline flights to airports in the interior regions of Cuba were suspended in December 2019 by order of then president Donald Trump who, during his tenure, reverted the rapprochement that his predecessor Barack Obama had started between the U.S. government and the regime in Havana in 2014.

In late June, American Airlines had requested from the Department of Transportation to increase its flights to the island, which were limited to the “José Martí” International Airport in Havana.

The company’s request came less than one month after USDOT’s Order 2022-6-1 went into effect, which rendered null all actions executed by the Trump administration between 2019 and 2020.

Suspension of flight restrictions to the island is part of the “measures announced by the Biden administration on May 16 in support of the Cuban people.”

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MIAMI, United States. – The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has announced that it will allow Delta and United Airlines to delay temporarily their reinstatement of flights to Cuba.

According to the news agency Reuters, United Airlines has been working for months toward restarting service to Havana, but it has requested an extension in order to finish infrastructural work that will allow the airline to operate adequately in Terminal 3 of the “José Martí” International Airport, where it is being relocated, as well as finish contract renegotiations with service providers.

Prior to border closings in March of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, United Airlines operated seven flights per week to Havana.

For Delta Airlines, which had restarted -after 55 years- its direct flights to Havana in 2016 thanks to the rapprochement between Cuba and the United States promoted by then president Barack Obama, it’s known that problems have arisen with reestablishing the route, although the nature of the problems has not been revealed.

Both airlines renewed conversations to renewing operating in Cuba following the U.S. Department of Transportation’s elimination of restrictions imposed by former president Donald Trump, which affected directly commercial flights of U.S. airlines to airports outside Havana.

For now, USDOT has given next December 1^st as its deadline for United Airlines to resume flights to Cuba, while the extension granted to Delta Airlines cannot go beyond March of 2023.

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MIAMI, United States. – Russia and Cuba renewed direct flights this week between the two countries with the launching of a Russian-Cuban charter flights program, according to the oficial news source RT.

Two flights from Moscow already landed at the Varadero and the Cayo Coco airports, according to this source. Russian aircrafts have permission to operate seven flights per week to the island (four to the airport in Varadero and three to the one in Cayo Coco).

The renewal of flights between Russia and Cuba tool place in spite of the closure of airspace to Russian aircrafts dictated by the United States and most of the countries in Europe as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

According to RT, Cuban authorities have ratified that Russian tourism to the island is “a priority”, aiming to retain Russia among the top three tourist markets for the Caribbean island.

It was made known in late August that Russian airline Nordwing Airlines would once again connect Russia with the Varadero and Cayo Coco tourist destinations.

A communique from the Pegas Touristik tour operator released at that time indicated that flights to Varadero would start on October 1^st with four weekly flights to be operated on Boeing 777-300ER aircrafts, with a capacity of 400 maximum passengers.

In a statement to the state news agency Prensa Latina, Juan Carlos Espinosa, Tourism advisor of Cuba’s embassy in Moscow, predicted that other Russian airlines would be flying to Cuba.

“We really hope that other tour operators and airlines follow the example of Pegas Touristik and Nordwind Airlines. Cuba is ready for the return of Russian tourists,” highlighted Espinosa.

Intent on generating confidence among Russian tourists, Escalona stated that the necessary negotiations to accept and service Russian MIR cards in Cuba would be completed before the end of this year.

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MADRID, Spain. – Conviasa, the Venezuelan airline, will increase to 10 the number of weekly flights to Cuba. The inauguration of the route between Havana and Las Piedras, a duty-free zone in Paraguaná, in the Venezuelan state of Falcón, will be next October 15^th.

With this flight, “travelers will have another alternative to reach a duty-free zone similar to those in Cancun, in Mexico and in Panama,” stated to the Cuban News Agency (ACN, by its Spanish acronym) Conviasa’s representative in Cuba, Vicente Naranjo.

Conviasa plans to connect Havana with Panama next, Vicente Naranjo revealed.

The airline company, founded by former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez in 2004, has operated in Cuba for 12 years, Managua being the destination that Cubans demand

most, especially since the regime in Nicaragua established a “no visa” requirement for Cuban citizens in November 2021.

At the present time, the airline has a frequency of two weekly flights to the Nicaraguan capital.

Among the airlines that have increased their flights to Cuba after they were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, are the Spanish company World2Fly, which is owned by the tourism group Iberostar; the Mexican company Viva Aerobus; the U.S. company American Airlines; the Colombian company Wingo, and the Angolan company TAAG-Líneas Aéreas.

The increase of flights is welcomed by the Cuban regime, in spite of the serious crisis that the country is facing, and it continues to opt for increasing the levels of the tourism industry.

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