“Each of our arriving planes requires at least 10 buses for transfers, and there is no fuel,” the company stated.
Contrary to the optimism he expressed just days ago, when he stated that the situation in Cuba would allow them to continue their operations, Constantino Pinto, commercial director of the Ávoris Group’s tourism operations in Portugal, has now announced the cancellation of all Travelplan flights from that country to the island. In an interview with the local media outlet Turisver, he reported that “serious supply problems, mainly with fuel” are the reason for his decision.
Pinto pointed out that not only is there no jet fuel for the planes, “which would force us to resort to a triangulation maneuver on the return trip,” but he also highlighted another major problem: the transportation of tourists. “Each of our arriving planes needs at least 10 buses for transfers, and if there is a fuel shortage, we would run the risk of having problems at any moment,” he stated.
“We cannot subject our clients to unnecessary risks, and initially we canceled the first three departures to Cayo Santa María, but since then we have decided to cancel the rest of the operation,” added the executive of Ávoris, the travel division of the Barceló Group , which has two hotels in Varadero.
“We cannot subject our clients to unnecessary risks.”
With this decision, flights scheduled for Saturdays to Varadero will be redirected to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, from the end of May, and from June, the one that was supposed to connect with Cayo Santa María will go to Cancun, Quintana Roo, in Mexico.
The measure will take a few months, so that passengers who had booked those flights “have the option to rebook to these destinations. We canceled well in advance and for a perfectly justifiable reason, but we will give them the opportunity to book other destinations, just as we did with the three dates we initially canceled,” Pinto added.
This announcement comes amid a wave of flight cancellations by several airlines, particularly those from Canada, the island’s main source of travelers. Last year, Canada contributed 754,010 visitors to the tourism sector, nearly half of the total of 1,810,663 This figure falls far short of the 1.9 million projected by Parliament in mid-December and, even worse, is significantly lower than the projections made a year earlier. The forecast at that time was for 2.6 million visitors, 30.3% higher than the final number.
Last year alone, Mexico received 47.78 million international tourists, an annual increase of 6.1%.
In addition, it will benefit the booming tourism sector in the two countries that will now be the destinations for Travelplan flights. Last year alone, Mexico received 47.78 million international tourists, a 6.1% annual increase for the country, the sixth most visited in the world, according to figures from the Mexican National Institute of Statistics and Geography.
The same is true in the Dominican Republic, which received 11.6 million visitors in 2025, a record figure for the country’s tourism, making it one of the country’s main sources of foreign exchange in this sector.
Until now, there were no plans for Travelplan to extend this measure to flights from Madrid. Neither their website nor the news released by the organization indicated this, although logic suggests that the same is likely happen with Spanish flights at any moment.
“Cuba has everything to be a great destination; we would like to see its tourism take off, which unfortunately is not happening.”
The company’s stance contrasts sharply with what was published in the Diario de Mallorca just February 12th, when the group stated that the company was continuing its operations “as normal,” although a year earlier one of its directors, Simón Pedro Barceló, expressed his displeasure that tourism in Cuba was not improving.
“Cuba has everything to be a great destination; we would like to see its tourism take off, which unfortunately is not happening,” he stated in a March 2025 interview with the same Mallorcan newspaper, when the crisis had not yet fully manifested itself on the island.
The crisis has also prompted governments in the Americas and Europe to issue warnings to potential travelers or to urge their citizens to leave the island. This Monday, for example, Costa Rica issued an urgent directive for its citizens to leave Cuba, also recommending the suspension of all non-essential travel to the country. This request responds to “the worsening shortages of fuel, electricity, and basic goods, such as food, water, and medicine in Cuba.”
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