Cuba’s Airports Prepare for the Eventual Return of Tourists

While tourism has been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Cuba’s airports have been undergoing extensive renovations during the shutdown. Construction to improve service quality, repaving of runways, and the implementation of hygiene and sanitization measures have taken place in preparation for the eventual return of the tourists.

Cuba has a total of 19 airports, 10 of which service international carriers. All of these airports have been preparing for the restart of tourist activities.

The runways of Holguín, Santiago de Cuba and Santa Clara airports have been repaved by Empresa Cubana de Aeropuertos y Servicios Aeronáuticos S.A. (ECASA) said Company head, Lisset Urgellés.

Odalys Martínez, the director at Terminal Three at Havana’s José Martí International Airport, said they are taking advantage the shutdown to implement construction improvements and services delivery, air conditioning repair and sanitation measures for when operations resume.

Cuba’s proactive stance since the first appearance of COVID-19 has resulted in a very limited spread of the disease with high recovery and low mortality rates. Commercial flights were suspended on March 24 as one of the measures to prevent massive spread of the disease. Since that date, the only flights permitted in and out of Cuba were humanitarian and repatriation of foreigners.

Tourism has suffered a huge setback globally because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cuban government said that borders will not open up to tourism again until it is safe to do so.