Madrid/While international weight airlines suspend their routes to Cuba by Lack of travelerssmall Venezuelan companies move in the opposite direction. Two of them, Turpial and Rutaca, have announced in recent days new direct flights with the island.
The latter inaugurated last Friday a connection between Havana and the provincial city of Valencia, as celebrated by the own José Martí International Airport On Facebook, with a frequency of twice a week. The company proclaimed the offer during July of two bags of up to 23 kilograms each and a hand luggage of up to 8 kg at no additional cost.
The fact that the airline offers, even “for a limited time”, duplicate the luggage at no cost, shows interest in promoting the trips of the mules Cubanas, just when the tourism crisis only deepens. The same shows the low cost of tickets: $ 450 round trip.
None of this refers The official pressthat urged the new routes with the Caribbean country. On the contrary, they refer to the visit to several cities of Venezuela of executives of the Ministry of Tourism of Cuba that “presented the attractions of the country.”
The island signed agreements with Caracas at a meeting of Ministers of Tourism of Alba to “enhance the development of the sector”
Cuba sun He stressed that last May, the island signed agreements with Caracas at a meeting of Tourism Ministers of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of America (ALBA) to “enhance the development of the sector.”
Turpial Airlines, which is sold as the main airline of the state of Carabobo, in northern Venezuela, will begin its routes between Caracas and Varadero, in Matanzas, on July 28. Their flights to the Juan Gualberto Gómez airport will have a weekly frequency, and the return to Caracas can be made from any other destination with which the company has a route, Havana (three flights a week) and Santiago de Cuba (one).
As you remember Cuba sunTurpial, founded in 2016 and with Panama as the first international destination, began its routes to Cuba three years ago. What he does not say is that the airline, which has three ships, is owned by former Colonel Chavista Pedro del Valle Cestari Navarro, something revealed by Colombian magazine Time In 2022. In those days, Turpial was news for receiving Colombia’s permission to fly to its territory, instead of Conviasa, sanctioned by the US Foreign Foreign Control Office (OFAC).
Venezuela is one of the destinations that Cubans choose to make purchases of items that then resell within the island. In particular, Margarita Island, where since 2022 there is a program to encourage commercial tourism. Only in the first year, Cubans They left about 17 million dollars For “the purchase of different items,” said the president of the Nueva Esparta Chamber of Commerce, José Gregorio Rodríguez, who encrypted in 5,000 visitors until August 2023 from the island. The success was such that the organizers decided to start filing load planes to increase the volume of passenger purchases.
According to data released by the Venezuelan Ministry of Tourism Last February, almost 30,000 Cubans had gone to Margarita until that date. Do not dissuade the nationals of the island the obligation to request a tourist visa, which has a cost of $ 50.
Meanwhile, international tourism languishes without remedy – this year and until June, it was not arrived Not one million travelers– And this is reflected in the withdrawal of the large airlines. United Airlines, the only American who connects Havana with Houston (Texas), announced this week that he will suspend his flights from September 2 and at least until the summer of 2026, something he had already decided, in early June, American Airlines. Similarly, Colombian Avianca announced that she would leave her route between Bogotá and Havana from next August 31, just before the high season of tourism. The cause is the same that has led other operators to give up traveling to Cuba: the low flight occupation.
