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Air Canada has cancelled all flights to Cuba after the island’s authorities said they were running out of aviation fuel, as a consequence of the US oil blockade on the Caribbean country.
The airline, one of a dozen who serve the island, said it would begin repatriating 3,000 customers. Cuba’s beaches are a major holiday draw for Canadian tourists in winter, and one of the government’s most important sources of hard currency.
Other airlines from as far away as Russia, China, Turkey, France and Spain have also been affected. The crisis has erupted at speed because of Washington’s policy of forcing Cuba’s government to the negotiation table, with prominent figures in Donald Trump’s administration calling for regime change.
The US has threatened any country that sends oil to Cuba with increased tariffs, claiming the island’s government is a threat to US national security. On Monday, Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, lashed out at what she described as a “very unjust” US policy.
“You can’t strangle a nation in this way,” she said. Mexico dispatched 800 tons of humanitarian aid to the beleaguered island nation on Sunday, and Sheinbaum said Mexico was taking “all necessary diplomatic actions” to be able to send oil to the island – although she did not offer details on how that might happen.
The scope of Cuba’s fuel crisis emerged late on Sunday when airlines were informed by a Notice to Aviation (NOTAM) warning that supplies would remain restricted until at least 11 March. The announcement came only two days after Cuba’s authorities had told the population international flights would be maintained.
Immediately after the NOTAM landed, Cuba-bound holidaymakers in Moscow complained of being disembarked and offered the alternative destinations of China, Egypt or Turkey. Cuba had been one of the few warm destinations Russian state employees could holiday in, due to Moscow’s wartime security restrictions.
Aeroflot said its subsidiary airline Rossiya would continue operating flights to Cuba, though routes may be adjusted to allow for refuelling. Where that would be, given the already 12 hour plus flight, remains unclear. Russia’s tourism board said about 4,500 of their tourists are now in Cuba, many of them state employees.
Yekaterina Gulbina, a tour guide in Cuba, told the Guardian the overall situation was “generally manageable” and that tourists remained in good spirits. “For tourists in hotels, everything is still available, electricity, generators and taxis with fuel,” she said.
European airlines have previous experience of this situation, and have been adapting. A similar crisis last year, of Cuba’s own making, saw airlines stopping to refuel in the Bahamas, Mexico and other nearby countries. Air Europa, which flies from Madrid, has already said it would stop for fuel in the Dominican Republic.
Other major airlines serving the island plan to continue flying. “Despite this situation, which is beyond our control, we expect to operate our flights as scheduled by implementing contingency measures, such as a technical stop when necessary,” said a spokesperson for the Canadian company Air Transat.
The aviation fuel crisis is the first obvious effect of the US oil blockade, and will affect one of Cuba’s largest sources of foreign exchange. At its height, Cuba was earning over $3bn annually from tourism, but that figure is now believed to have crashed below $1bn.
Cuba had already been consolidating tourists into fewer hotels. Vicky Volonik and Mark Harrington, two Canadians who arrived in Cuba last week, told a Canadian news channel that they were being transferred to another hotel. “They’re trying to conserve energy by grouping everybody in the same hotel,” said Volonik. “People are very upset because all the workers here just pretty much lost their job and their livelihood … We’re more concerned about the people here. We’ll be looked after.”
Johnny Considine, of the travel agency Cuba Private Travel, said that clients already on the island were unaffected. “They think it’s a little bit quiet,” he said. “But they’re having a very good time. Regarding clients who are coming in the near future, we are obviously contacting all of them. They can read the news for themselves and obviously make up their own minds whether they want to come or postpone.”
Until now, the US’s increasingly aggressive stance had felt relatively distant on the island, with Cubans more preoccupied with trying to survive in a perpetual state of economic crisis. But on Monday, gas stations across the country were closed, and there were far fewer cars on the road.
Cubans with cars have been told that finding fuel will require downloading an app and joining an online queue. On WhatsApp groups dedicated to the crisis, people were complaining the system was almost impossible to work. Cubans without transport try to flag down what drivers there are from the side of the roads.
One British holidaying couple, in the southern tourist town of Trinidad, were furious about the situation. “Cuba is the most beautiful place,” said the wife. “I absolutely love it here and will come back with my kids one day when I hope the resilience of the Cuban people has once again triumphed over the economic terrorism of the USA.” They preferred not to give their names.
