Turkish Airlines has again canceled the flights to Cuba that it had announced for the end of October, after briefly making tickets available for the Moscow–Istanbul–Havana route.
"Flights to Havana, scheduled from October 25, have been canceled. They remained visible in the booking system for a short period, but are no longer available for reservation," confirmed a spokesperson for the Turkish airline to Diario de Cuba.
The company specified that Turkish Airlines flights to Moscow continue to operate as scheduled, with a stopover in Istanbul, and clarified that there is no independent Moscow–Istanbul–Havana route.
The canceled itinerary included departures from Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, with a stopover in Istanbul and a final destination at José Martí International Airport in Havana.
According to the specialized portal Ch-aviation, Turkish Airlines planned to operate three weekly flights with Boeing 787-9 aircraft.
The cancellation comes just days after the company resumed ticket sales for that route, a decision that had raised hopes for the recovery of flights between Russia and Cuba via Turkey.
In mid-August, Turkish Airlines had put tickets on sale to start operating the route from October 25, with prices starting at 137,565 rubles, equivalent to about 1,650 dollars, for round-trip flights in economy class.
This new cancellation comes five months after the airline suspended the route at the end of March, when it completed its last flight to Havana on the 29th of that month, citing a shortage of Jet A-1 fuel and a decline in tourist demand.
The fuel crisis at Cuban airports intensified in February when authorities issued NOTAM A0356/26 to warn that nine international airports, including Havana, Varadero, Holguín, and Santiago de Cuba, would not have jet fuel available for at least a month.
That situation triggered a cascade of suspensions. By April, a group of 11 airlines had canceled or reduced their operations to Cuba, including Air France, Iberia, Air Canada, LATAM Peru, and Turkish itself.
Currently, the Turkish airline only has a connection to Havana through a stop in Panama, where passengers must transfer to Copa Airlines flights.
The Moscow–Istanbul–Havana route was strategic for Russian tourism to Cuba, one of the markets that has declined the most this year. Between January and June, the island received only 387,591 foreign tourists, a decrease of 60.7% compared to the same period in 2025, according to the National Office of Statistics and Information. The Russian market recorded a drop of 66.8%, second only to the Canadian collapse of 70.3%.
The new reversal by Turkish Airlines deepens Cuba's air isolation and further diminishes the prospects for tourist recovery in the last quarter of the year.
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