Flights to Cuba, explained

U.S. carriers have held up better than anyone else through 2026, and the reason is geography. Miami to Havana is a 236-mile hop of roughly an hour. An aircraft can fly down, turn around, and fly back on a single tank loaded in Florida, so it never depends on Cuban jet fuel — the single biggest constraint on the island's air service this year.

American Airlines carries the bulk of the traffic, with Miami service to Havana, Santa Clara and Holguín. Delta and Southwest each run one daily round trip, from Miami and Tampa respectively. The main caveat is the 2026 waiver program, which lets airlines pause specific routes for a season without losing them — so a route can vanish from the schedule for months and then reappear.

Outside the United States the picture splits sharply by distance. Mexico and Panama are close enough to run the same tanker-in-the-fuel strategy, and Aeroméxico, Viva Aerobus and Copa have all kept flying with little disruption. Copa's Panama City hub is often the most flexible way into Havana, Holguín or Santa Clara from anywhere in the Americas.

Long-haul Europe is where it gets fragile. Air Europa and World2Fly still serve Madrid–Havana, while Iberia paused June through October, and Air France and Turkish now add a technical fuel stop on the return leg. Russian and several Latin American routes are suspended outright. Book long-haul with a flexible fare and expect the return schedule to differ from the outbound.

Domestic aviation inside Cuba is running at a fraction of its normal level. Only a handful of scheduled routes are operating — Havana to Nueva Gerona, Santiago de Cuba and Holguín — and most run once or twice a week rather than daily.

Practically, this means you should not plan an itinerary that depends on connecting from an international arrival onto a same-day internal flight. For most travelers, long-distance buses, private drivers or a charter are more dependable ways to move between provinces.

Canada was historically Cuba's largest source of visitors, and its absence is the most visible change on the map. Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing and Air Transat have all suspended Cuba flying, covering everything from Havana to the beach gateways at Varadero, Cayo Coco, Holguín and Cayo Largo.

The cause is the same fuel problem: those routes are too long to complete a round trip without uplifting fuel in Cuba, and the supply is not reliable enough to schedule around. Canadian travelers currently connect through Mexico, Panama or a U.S. gateway. No firm restart date has been announced.