Havana Airport HAV
Havana airport is located 18 kilometers from Havana and is named after José Martí to honor the Cuban patriot and poet. It is the main airport for international and domestic flights in Cuba, serving a large number of passengers each year, mainly from Canada, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, Germany and France. The airport is a hub for Cubana de Aviación, Aero Gaviota and Aero Caribbean.
The capital’s airfield currently has 5 terminals named by their number. Terminal 1 provides services to domestic flights of Cubana de Aviación. Terminal 2 receives planes from the United States, charters arriving from Miami, flights from Cayman Airways and Bahamasair. Likewise, some Europeans like Condor, which arrives in Cuba since September 2014, land at this terminal. On the other hand, Terminal 5 provides services to Aerocaribbean and other charters. Terminal 4, although it may seem strange, is the only one not known by number. This is the International Cargo Terminal, an alliance between the company Cargosur, part of the Iberia group of Spain, and Aerovaradero SA. This terminal has a capacity of 600 tons and 2 thousand cubic meters of space.
Of all the terminals, number 3 is the most modern and the one that receives the largest number of passengers. Its 70,000-square-meter runway is used to land medium- and large-sized aircraft of airlines such as AirFrance, KLM and Copa Airlines. This terminal, internally, has an area of 30 thousand square meters. There you will enjoy a restaurant, cafeteria, stores and commercial areas. Every year there are more and more airlines that want to invest in Cuba as a destination and José Martí Airport in Havana is the first door of the country in that sense.
Design and location
Therefore, it is designed to serve 1,500 passengers per hour at peak times and about 3 million per year. Similar to the most modern airports on the continent, it has 10 elevators and 6 escalators. It has 48 “stands” for international airlines. Havana Airport it also has 32 immigration booths, 36 for travelers’ checks and 2 VIP lounges with capacity for 150 personalities. Getting there is super easy. You can use two roads: take the Avenida de Rancho Boyeros or go by an accessory highway of 7.5 km long, which connects Terminal 3 with Avenida 114 de Marianao. Now, by public transportation you would use routes P-9, P-12 and P-16. Although you could also take Havana airport taxi. There is a bus service to transfer between the terminals.
Due to the U.S. embargo against Cuba, no U.S. airline was allowed to make scheduled flights to the airport, so all regular flights from Miami were designated as charters. Several airlines operated continuous service between Havana and Miami, including American Airlines, Gulfstream International Airlines, United Airlines, and Continental Airlines. Because of Cuba’s relationship with the Soviet Union, during the 1970s and 1980s the airport enjoyed the presence of many Eastern Bloc airlines.
As part of the Cuban meltdown, scheduled commercial service to and from the United States began again in the fall of 2016, with American Airlines, Delta, and, after January 2017, Alaska, flying to Havana Airport.