The arrival to Cuba this Monday of an aircraftCuban Aviation which had been out of service for seven years and four of them in Russia, undergoing extensive maintenance, has been celebrated on social networks as an event.
“Our TU-204, CU-T 1702, already in the Homeland! Congratulations!"The Cuban Aviation Importing Company, AVIAIMPORT, wrote on Facebook.
“Cubana de Aviación will be able to once again have the Tupolev TU-204E type aircraft active in its fleet and the reason is that the aircraft was transferred to Russia, where it passed throughan extensive and heavy maintenance process”, the airline itself reported on its social networks.
"Cubana de Aviación celebrates this beginning andcontinues to grow big! Welcome back to the Homeland of all Cubans!”, concluded the euphoric airline.
The event was also widely documented in the popular Facebook group Lovers of Cuban Aviation, where several Internet users shared photos or videos of the aircraft's arrival.
In one of the posts, several commenters surmised that One of the reasons for such a delay could be the Cuban government's known delays in paying service providers.
Although for now the route it will take is unknown, the return of the Cubana aircraft has been celebrated in style. Even the official journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso did not want to miss taking public note of the event.
Agreement with Russia
CUBANA's Tupolev TU-204 (CU-T1702) left Cuba in July 2019 and flew to Ulyanovsk to make a"major overhaul", term used in cases where an aircraft undergoes a capital repair.
In 2019 the Russian government agreed to restore airworthiness of Cubana de Aviación's fleet of Russian and Ukrainian aircraft and opened a local maintenance and repair center to support the airline.
The Kremlin and Havana signed a contract after the visit to the island of Yuri Borisov, the then deputy prime minister responsible for Russia's military-industrial complex. Both governments reached an agreement that allowed heavy maintenance (called Check-D and Check-C) to be carried out on Russian-made aircraft in their country of origin.
Before closing the contract, Russian specialists evaluated the condition of five Ilyushin Il-96-300, three Tupolev TU-204 and six Antonov AN-158, supplied to Cubana between 2005 and 2015.
From that review came a comprehensive plan to put them back into operation, which specified the work to be done and the necessary spare parts. At that time theAIN He specified that Moscow provided "most of the financing under sovereign guarantees to Cuba."
The news portalOnline Aviation He detailed this Monday that The lack of suitable components for its Russian aircraft had prevented Cuba from previously carrying out fleet maintenance.
The aforementioned source reveals that the Tupolev 204 with registration CU-T1702 left for Russia on July 4, 2019 to undergo Check-D at the Spektr-Avia Technic maintenance center (MRO) at Ulyanovsk Vostochny Airport.
"This aircraft, which was 16.1 years old at that time, was assembled and delivered by the manufacturer Aviastar-SP to the state airline in December 2007," he said.
When the Tupolevs were out of service, Cubana de Aviación resorted to a wet-leasing contract with Avion Express to use Airbus A320s for a short period. However, due to economic restrictions that made it difficult to acquire dollars, that contract was canceled.
In addition, the airline's only two active Ilyushin Il-96s were sent to the hangars of the manufacturer Voronezh Aircraft Production Association (VASO) at Pridacha Voronezh Airport for C-Check maintenance, according to the agreement with Russia. His return to the state airline is still unknown.
As a result, Cubana de Aviación had to resort to an agreementwet-leasing with Plus Ultra Airlines to maintain its flights to Madrid, Spain, and Buenos Aires/Ezeiza, Argentina, using an Airbus A340-300.
Until now the state airline only had one ATR 72-200 in operation for domestic flights, the source concluded.
The destination of the newly arrived Cubana plane is unknown, but it previously used to operate in destinations such as Bogotá, Cancún, Caracas, Mexico City, Santo Domingo and São Paulo/Guarulhos.
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