Cayo Coco, Cuba. Foto: Maxos Dim on Pixabay

It’s official: Two major airlines resume their flight routes to Cuba this Autumn.Virgin Atlantic and World2Fly are set to resume their flight routes to Cuba from September and October 2021.

These are encouraging steps for holidaymakers planning to visit Cuba in the near future.

Encouraging steps to return to normality

Tourists looking for some late Summer and early Autumn sunshine will welcome the good news that two major airlines are set to resume their flight routes to Cuba this September and October.

As holidaymakers seek steps back to normality following the Coronavirus pandemic, British airline Virgin Atlantic and the Spanish Iberostar Group’s World2Fly have announced that passengers will be able to fly to Havana, the capital city of the Caribbean Island of Cuba, in the coming weeks.

World2Fly announced that the first flight from Madrid (MAD) to Havana (HAV) will depart on 22nd September 2021, operating two flights per week on Wednesdays and Fridays. The airline has previously confirmed its intention of flying to Cuba but it’s only now when the dates have become available.

As this route is expected to be highly popular, World2Fly is also hoping to increase the number of flights they operate, branching out to include other resort destinations in Cuba, like Varadero.

Autumnal sunshine in Havana

British airline Virgin Atlantic has announced that their flights will resume on 1st October, offering the chance for British tourists to have some Autumn sunshine.

Cuba’s average temperatures for October are in the late twenties and early thirties, making the long, white sandy beaches and crystalline seas the perfect setting for a luxury getaway.

“Our airplanes will depart from London to Havana in addition to other routes in the Caribbean. There will be two flights to Cuba each week, with expectations to increase to three flights if conditions continue to improve.” – Juha Jarvinen, CEO Virgin Atlantic

Cuba’s fight against COVID-19

Passengers arriving in Havana on Virgin Atlantic flights may be amazed to see just how hard Cuba has fought against the Coronavirus pandemic. Despite some recent setbacks, for a country of Cuba’s size and resources, the island has become a health hub for the whole of Latin America.

Cuba is currently immersed in a vaccination campaign against COVID-19. This is because scientists on the island are currently working on no fewer than five homegrown vaccines: Soberana 01, Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus, all developed by the Finlay Vaccine Institute; as well as Abdala and Mambisa, the latter a nasal spray, both created by the Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.

With this in mind, the Cuban health authorities’ plan is to have 70% of the island’s inhabitants vaccinated by September, and 100% by the end of the year.

In addition to this, there’s currently an ongoing drive to get everybody working in the tourism industry completely vaccinated in order to alleviate the industry, and there’s a genuine thought that Cuba may re-appear on the UK’s “green list” over the coming weeks.

A welcome return to Cuba for many British tourists

According to tourism statistics released by the Ministry of Tourism in Cuba, as well as the National Bureau of Statistics and Information in the UK, Britain was one of the main tourist issuing markets in 2019, pre-pandemic.

Some123,535 British tourists travelled to Havana, Cayo Coco, Varadero, Cayo Santa Maria, and Guardalavaca destinations. There’s little doubt that as the pandemic diminishes and we return to normal, the figures will steadily increase once again.

(Source: Cuba Travel News. cubadirect.co.uk/news)