CDMX, Mexico. – The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, proposed this Friday that her country function as an “air bridge” so that airlines that fly to Cuba can supply jet fuel, amid the shortage of aviation fuel on the Island, a problem that has already caused route suspensions and operational adjustments of international companies.
The president conditioned the measure on a formal request from the Cuban Government: “If Cuba requests it, then there would be those conditions, of course,” she declared during his press conference this Friday at the National Palace.
Sheinbaum explained that the idea would allow routes to be sustained and, in parallel, facilitate the arrival of humanitarian aid by air. “They can load, they can come to Mexico. In fact, Mexican flights from Mexican airlines are not closed to Cuba because there is jet fuel here and it is very close,” he said. Along these lines, he joked with journalists by emphasizing that the fuel would have a cost: “They have to pay for the jet fuel, obviously.”
The approach occurs after Sheinbaum publicly maintained that flights from Mexico have been able to maintain operations to Cuba precisely because they load fuel in Mexico. “Mexican flights to the Island have not been suspended, they load their jet fuel here in the country,” he stated.
In that sense, the airline Viva indicated that its operation to Havana continued “normally” after the notification about “a limited availability of fuel” in Cuba, effective from February 10 to March 11.
The jet fuel crisis has already had a direct impact on the air market to the Island. Air Canada announced on February 9 the immediate suspension of its service to Cuba. The company indicated that its “immediate priority” was to “repatriate the passengers” who remained in Cuba and that it would operate “empty ferry flights” to pick them up.
Canadian airlines WestJet Airlines and Air Transat also announced the temporary suspension of their flights to Cuba due to the shortage of aircraft fuel on the Island.
According to BloombergWestJet (Canada’s second largest airline) and Air Transat had initially said they would maintain their operations through contingencies, including the possibility of making technical stops for refueling outside Cuba. However, both companies changed their position at the last minute this Monday and opted to suspend flights due to uncertainty about the supply of fuel at Cuban airports.
The Cuban authorities they communicated that they could not supply aviation fuel at nine international airports—including the main one in Havana—“from Tuesday until March 11,” in the context of the most serious energy crisis that the country has ever gone through.
The suspension of Canadian airline flights hits a key flow for the Cuban tourism industry. Even the Government of Canada updated its travel recommendation and asked for “extreme caution” when visiting Cuba due to the “worsening lack of electricity, fuel and basic necessities, such as food, water and medicine.”
The episode occurs while Washington increases pressure on Havana in the energy field. On January 29, United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring a “national emergency” and creating a process to impose tariffs on goods from countries that “sell or provide” oil to Cuba.
