Joel Archer Santos, president of the Cuban Aviation Corporation (Cacsa), has confirmed to the state media the crisis affecting Cubana de Aviación, which currently has only two operational planes on the island.
In March 2024, the airline announced that before the end of the year it would recover three aircraft from its fleet, two long-haul and one medium-haul. But that has not happened.
As is usually the case, Archer Santos blames the United States embargo for the situation, despite the fact that what they call the "blockade" is neither new nor began yesterday. He explains that the crisis at Cubana de Aviación is due to the regime living hand to mouth, and when a plane suffers a breakdown, the necessary part must be "produced" and then they have to wait for it to arrive from abroad.
This forces them to keep refurbished aircraft grounded, waiting for a part they need to fly. It also confirms that they have had to abort the purchase of an airplane due, of course, to the embargo.
To circumvent the crisis, they have chosen connections with international flights to the provinces of Camagüey, Holguín, and Santiago de Cuba. However, they have been unable to establish connections with Guantánamo or Manzanillo, areas in the country for which there is no immediate solution, unlike Gerona, the capital of Isla de la Juventud, which has resumed connections with Havana with two weekly flights. In the air, Archer Santos leaves the promise of improvement in the short term.
After more than a year of suspension, on December 19, 2024, the air bridge between the Isle of Youth and Havana was reestablished. The Havana-Gerona route will operate with two weekly flights on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The price of the ticket is 300 CUP, “for now,” Islavisión clarified, and the launch has managed to unify the waiting list with that of travelers.
It should be noted that at the beginning of December 2024, the IL 96 300 aircraft from Cubana de Aviación landed at José Martí International Airport after undergoing comprehensive maintenance in Russia that took more than a year.
The shortage of Cubana de Aviación planes is not new. Foreign airlines such as Air Europa have taken advantage of this crisis by leasing planes to Cuba. There are also American airlines connecting various points in the United States with several Cuban airports, including multiple flights to Havana.
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