Havana, Cuba reopens in time for high season

Cuba’s Havana Int’l airport is to re-open to regular commercial flights on November 15 after being closed for seven and a half months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Cuban state-run media citing Cuba’s civil aviation authority (Instituto de Aeronáutica Civil de Cuba – IACC). Reuters reports the move comes on time for what is traditionally the Caribbean island nation’s high tourist season from November to March, although the pandemic was expected to reduce the flow of visitors. Authorities will test all international travellers for COVID-19 on arrival, state-run media said, and would levy a sanitary tariff in order to cover the extra costs of new hygiene protocols. Cuba officially reopened for international tourism on July 1, 2020, in a phased approach, starting with certain tourist cities, and gradually opened more from October. Varadero reopened on October 15 and Holguin on November 3, 2020. State-run airline Cubana (CU, Havana Int’l) resumed weekly flights between Santiago de Cuba and Madrid Barajas on November 10 using an A340-300 leased from Spain’s Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas (PU, Madrid Barajas), according to ch-aviation schedules module. The airline, on November 17, was scheduled to add weekly flights from Havana Int’l to Madrid Barajas. On December 21, it plans to resume weekly flights from Havana to Buenos Aires Ezeiza. Spainish leisure specialist Evelop Airlines (E9, Palma de Mallorca) is scheduled to restart its weekly services between Madrid and Havana on November 15, increasing to 2x weekly by Easter next year. The airline will also resume flights to Cancún (Mexico) on December 5, and to Punta Cana (Dominican Republic) on December 6, both with weekly services. Several international airlines have returned to Holguin’s Frank Pais Airport. According to the ch-aviation schedules module, Canada’s Air Transat (TS, Montréal Trudeau) resumed weekly flights from Montréal Trudeau on November 10, and from Toronto Pearson on November 17 respectively, while fellow Canadian carrier Sunwing Airlines (WG, Toronto Pearson) would follow suit with twice-weekly services from Montreal on December 11.