14ymedio, Havana, 2 March 2022 — The closure of the airspaces of Canada, the US and Europe is forcing Russian airlines to modify their usual air routes. This is the case of Nordwind Airlines flight 353 that left this March 2 from Sheremétievo airport (in Moscow) and will arrive at 5:42 pm Cuban time at Juan Gualberto Gómez, in Varadero.
The Boeing 772 of that Russian company took off at 11:03 am Moscow time and is now flying over the Atlantic on a route that avoids the forbidden skies of Iceland, Greenland, Canada and the United States. The trip will take 14 hours and 39 minutes, two hours longer than usual. The plane had to fly towards the North Pole to avoid the air corridors of the Scandinavian countries, and then resume its route towards the southwest.
Nordwind has another flight on the same route scheduled for this Thursday.
The Cuban Company of Airports and Aeronautical Services (Ecasa) broadcast a message on its Telegram channel, communicating that the Nordwind airline will maintain flights from Russia to Cuba and vice versa, with specific instructions for Cubans.
This message indicates that Cubans will be accepted on return flights from Russia to the Island, while “from Cuban airports, Cuban passengers will be accepted only after all Russian tourists are accepted.”
Nordwind is the only airline that has maintained the schedule of its flights between Russia and the Island, after three other airlines suspended their trips on Monday.
The airline travels to Cayo Coco and Varadero, and in its schedules it maintains trips for March 4 and 8, from Moscow to Cayo Coco, and on March 5 from Moscow to Varadero.
It is also scheduled to leave from Cayo Coco on March 4 to the Sheremetyevo airport.
This Monday, the companies Azur Air, Aeroflot, and Royal Flight canceled their flights to Cuba from Russia, due to the closure of European airspace, a measure taken by the 27 European Union nations in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The route that Nordwind makes to the Island is similar to the one that Azur Air made this Tuesday between the Moscow-Vnukovo international airport and the La Romana airport in the Dominican Republic, through the North Atlantic. For this Wednesday there are two scheduled flights with that route and one more for Thursday.
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