The British airline Virgin Atlantic has decided to postpone the return of its flights to Cuba, scheduled for next november 1. Without going into details, through a statementalleged that the decision was due to the “complexity of the operation”.
On April 24, Virgin Atlantic officially announced the return of the route between London and Havana. At that moment the official press celebrated the reestablishment of flights between the international airports of Heathrow, in London, and José Martí, in Havana, on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. “Tourist operations are strengthened”, between the United Kingdom and Cuba, published Cubadebate. A month later the British airline specified that the plans were postponed.
These flights were going to be a balm for the island’s tourism sector, which despite receiving 313,908 visitors between January and March, is in a debacle. This figure is too far of the 1,470,457 tourists that Cuba registered in the first quarter of 2019.
Although the Minister of Economy, Alejandro Gil, said that “national tourism has had a favorable behavior” in the first quarter of this year, it seems that the 2.5 million visitors that the Government has planned to receive in 2022 will not be reached. .
These flights were going to be a balm for the island’s tourism sector, which despite receiving 313,908 visitors between January and March, is in a debacle
The announcement of Virgin Atlantic, founded in 1984, maintains a frozen direct route with the British Isles, among the top 10 issuers of visitors to Cuba. Currently the connection route is through Manchester-Varadero and is controlled by tour operators.
The airline had planned to start operations next November, just with the second peak tourist season for the Island.
If everything goes as announced by Virgin Atlantic, it will be in 2023 when the route is restored and operations begin with Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner equipment, in its fleet configured with 264 seats in three classes.
The British airline opened the nonstop route between London and Havana in 2005. And it remained until March 23, 2020, with its last flight due to the covid-19 pandemic. It currently operates to destinations in North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and Asia from London air terminals at Heathrow and Gatwick.
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our newspaper. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
