Turkish Airlines announced a new date for the resumption of its flights to Havana; this time, one will have to wait until the week of March 28, 2027, according to a scheduling update published by AeroRoutes.
The new date shifts the previous forecast, which had the return scheduled for the week of October 25, 2026, and leaves Cuba without direct service from the Turkish airline for at least five more months.
About two weeks ago, the company canceled for the second time the tickets it had put on sale for October. In mid-August, Turkish Airlines marketed tickets for the Moscow–Istanbul–Havana route with departures scheduled from October 27, at prices starting from 137,565 rubles (around 1,650 dollars) in economy class, with three weekly frequencies operated with Boeing 787-9. By the end of August, those tickets disappeared from the reservation system without prior notice.
"The flights to Havana, scheduled from October 25, have been canceled," a spokesperson for the airline confirmed.
The new forecast places Havana's route at the start of the summer season for the Northern Hemisphere in 2027. The notable point is that Havana is not among the destinations permanently eliminated. Turkish Airlines has permanently removed 11 routes from its network, but Cuba is not on that list.
The last flight of Turkish Airlines to Havana took place on March 29, when the airline suspended the route citing a shortage of Jet A-1 fuel and a decline in tourist demand. Since then, the company only maintains a connection to the Island through a stopover in Panama, where passengers must transfer to Copa Airlines flights.
If the new forecast holds true, Turkish Airlines will have gone exactly one year without operating direct flights to Cuba when it resumes the route in March 2027.
The root of the problem is the persistent aviation fuel crisis at Cuban airports. The Cuban Air Navigation Company (ECNA) has active aeronautical notices declaring the unavailability of Jet A-1 kerosene at ten international airports—among them Havana, Varadero, Holguín, and Santiago de Cuba—at least until October 1, 2026.
Turkish Airlines is not the only one affected. At least 11 international airlines have suspended or reduced operations to Cuba so far this year: Air France, Iberia, Air Canada, WestJet, Air Transat, LATAM Peru, Magnicharters, Sunwing, Rossiya, Nordwind, and Turkish itself.
The impact on Cuban tourism is historic. Between January and August 2026, Cuba received only 450,353 international visitors, a 64% decrease compared to the same period in 2025, according to the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI). The Russian market — the primary beneficiary of the Moscow–Istanbul–Havana route — experienced a decline of 66.8% in the first half of the year.
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