Canadian WestJet will add another route to Havana in December.
14ymedio, 13 July 2025 — The Colombian airline Avianca will abandon its route between Bogota and Havana from the 31st of August, in anticipation of the high season of tourism on the island. The specialized media have referred to the low occupancy of the flights as the reason for the suspension of the route, which would leave Wingo as the only company offering direct trips between both cities from September.
The route, resumed by Avianca last December after stopping it in 2020, lasted a little more than eight months, with a daily frequency and 2,500 seats weekly. However, specialized aviation media had already predicted a possible disappearance of the route, which will make its last flight from El Dorado to Terminal 3 of José Martí on August 30 at 12:35.
Last April, Reportur said that the demand for flights between Colombia and the Island had plummeted and that, according to an expert, the airlines operating the route were flying “with less than 70%” of capacity. The numbers, stressed the portal, are not profitable for the Panamanian Copa and the Colombian Wingo and Avianca, but then none had given signs of wanting to suspend their route.
For airlines to make a profit, flight occupancy must exceed 80%, “with a good average fare of at least 300 dollars.”
For airlines to make a profit, flight occupancy must exceed 80%, “with a good average fare of at least 300 dollars.” According to Reportur, at the beginning of the year Cuba had experienced some hotel recovery – mainly thanks to foreign companies importing their own resources and food – but this did not translate into an increase in passengers, at least not from Colombia. “The demand has not recovered.”
The connection has also lost potential travelers with the closure of the southern border of the United States and the prohibition on Cubans to travel to Colombia without a visa. And since 2023, the US has imposed sanctions on all airlines and officials involved in smuggling migrants from the Island to Nicaragua. Because of the restrictions, several airlines have already had to suspend flights between destinations, and some have even been penalized by Washington.
Despite the crisis in tourism and the cancelation of several routes in recent months, some airlines continue to bet on Cuba. This July, the Canadian airline WestJet announced that it plans to include a new flight to Havana from Toronto in its winter itineraries for 2025-2026, with two weekly frequencies, and that it will operate from December 18 to April 23 of next year. In an official statement, the Cuban Aviation Corporation welcomed the announcement as another way to strengthen relations with Canada.
In an official statement, the Cuban Aviation Corporation welcomed the announcement as another way to strengthen relations with Canada.
WestJet will also increase the frequency of some of its existing connections to the Island. This is the case of the route from Toronto to Varadero, which will increase to 11 weekly frequencies from this Monday; there will be seven flights a week from Montreal to Cayo Coco (Ciego de Ávila); and from Montreal to Santa Clara there will be five.
Although Canada is still the hen that laid the golden egg for Cuba in terms of tourism, the number of travelers arriving on the Island from that country follows the same downward trend as the sector. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (ONEI), 387,404 Canadians arrived in Cuba between January and May 2025, almost 30% fewer than in the same period in 2024.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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