Air Canada halts service to Cuba as island set to run out of jet fuel
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
An Air Canada plane at Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport. The airline said it was suspending service to Cuba due to a lack of guaranteed fuel supply at the airports there.
PHOTO: AFP
HAVANA - Cuba is at risk of losing vital airline service as it prepares to run out of aviation fuel, with at least one major carrier, Air Canada, suspending all service to the island as a result.
The communist government warned international airlines they can no longer refuel at its main airport in Havana for the next month after Donald Trump threatened tariffs on any nation that supplies Cuba with oil. A-1 jet fuel won’t be available at Jose Marti International Airport beginning Feb 10 through March 11, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a notice on Feb 8.
Canada’s flagship carrier said on Feb 9 it was halting flights to Cuba effective immediately, though it plans to send empty planes to bring back about 3,000 vacationers currently on the island.
Air Canada “will continue to monitor the situation to determine an appropriate restart of normal service” at a future date, the Montreal-based company said in a statement. Two routes, to Varadero and Cayo Coco, are tentatively scheduled to restart in May.
Two other carriers in the northern nation, WestJet Airlines and Transat AT, said they expected to continue operating flights as usual for now, either by carrying sufficient fuel for return trips or building technical stops into their schedules. All three airlines said they were also introducing special flexibility measures for customers with upcoming travel to the Caribbean island.
Cuba’s latest standoff with the US, which wants the regime in Havana to fall, risks doing lasting damage to its crucial tourism industry – a vital source of hard currency for the cash-strapped nation. Over the weekend, it began shutting down resorts and consolidating visitors in a smaller number of hotels in hopes of capturing as much external revenue as possible during the high season.
The US pressure campaign also led an allied nation cut off an important escape valve for migrants on Feb 8, when Nicaragua altered immigration rules to block Cuban citizens from entering without a visa. Nearly one in five Cuban residents has fled the island over the past decade amid a worsening economic crisis.
Another ally, Russia, said the fuel supply situation in Cuba was reaching a critical point. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov didn’t specify whether Moscow is planning to provide oil products to the island, according to news agency Interfax.
Russia’s largest airline, Aeroflot, cancelled its Feb 9 commercial flight to Cuba and instead sent the empty plane to pick up stranded tourists, Russia’s tour operators association said in a statement. Aeroflot flights to Cuba have been suspended until late March, it added. The group estimates there are about 4,500 Russians vacationing on the island at present.
Cuba is served by US, Canadian, European and Latin American airlines. In previous times of economic distress, including after the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, airlines rearranged schedules to allow for refueling in Mexico or the Dominican Republic.
In addition to tourists spending money in government run hotels, air travellers often bring much needed supplies to Cuba. Food, medication and consumer goods are often imported via so-called mules who load up their luggage to bring in on commercial flights.
Washington effectively cut off fuel shipments to Cuba from its top ally Venezuela in early January, when it whisked socialist leader Nicolas Maduro away to face trial in New York on narco-terrorism charges.
Mr Trump’s tariff threat appeared aimed squarely at Mexico, which had also been providing oil. President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed on Feb 9 her government was suspending oil exports, though she pledged to keep providing humanitarian aid. Two navy ships were dispatched on Feb 8, loaded with more than 800 tonnes of food and personal hygiene products.
The government in Havana said last week it’s open to talks with the US but insists its one-party system of government isn’t up for negotiation.
It unveiled contingency measures to deal with the crisis on the night of Feb 6 that included reducing public transportation routes, shortening the work week to Monday through Thursday and moving some university classes online.
The state also intends to accelerate plans to transition to more use of solar power. Cuba’s national grid suffered a half-dozen complete collapses in the span of a year as conditions on the island worsened. BLOOMBERG
