Disruptions to Cuba’s travel industry began this week after the government notified airlines that it would run out of aviation fuel, part of a crippling energy crisis triggered by the Trump administration’s strict measures, which have largely cut off the communist country’s access to foreign oil.
Air Canada announced that, starting Monday, it had suspended its 16 flights per week to four Cuban cities.
WestJet Group, which operates WestJet, Sunwing Vacations, WestJet Vacations and Vacances WestJet Quebec, said it had begun an “orderly wind down” of its operations in Cuba in order to lessen the strain local resources.
Both airlines said they would send empty jets to Cuba from Montreal and Toronto to bring back roughly 3,000 Canadians currently visiting the island.
Before the pandemic, at least 1 million Canadians visited Cuba each year, according to the Canada foreign ministry.
Canada has been a top source of tourists to Cuba. and the loss of Canadian tourists will be a hard hit to an already struggling industry.
Though Russian airlines said their flights would continue as usual, Interfax, the Russian wire service, said a Rossiya Airlines flight Monday was canceled, but the empty plane was flown to Cuba to pick up Russian tourists.
According to the Association of Tour Operators of Russia, there may currently be between 4,200 and 4,700 tourists traveling on package tours from Russia in Cuba.
The lack of jet fuel was the first major blow to Cuba’s economy since President Trump announced on Jan. 29 that he was taking additional steps to stop the flow of oil to Cuba. Mr. Trump, claiming without providing evidence that Cuba harbored terrorist groups, said he would impose tariffs on any nation that provided Cuba with oil. The move largely affected Mexico, which had been one of the few remaining sources of oil for the island.
Cuba had long relied on Venezuela for a majority of its fuel needs. But after the Jan. 3 U.S. attack on Venezuela that ousted its president, the Trump administration took control over Venezuela’s oil industry and stopped shipments to Cuba.
The measure is widely seen as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to exacerbate Cuba’s economic free fall and prolonged blackouts and force an end to the country’s 66-year-old communist revolution.
Cuba produces about 40 percent of the oil it needs, but experts say that is not enough to keep the country functioning. They predict that Cuba will likely run out of reserves by the end of March.
Cuba does not keep much reserves of jet fuel, so it was not surprising that it ran out of that first, said Jorge Piñón, an expert on Cuba energy issues at the University of Texas.
“This only impacts long-haul flights; the flights from Miami historically come with enough fuel to go back and forth,” Mr. Piñón said. “If we don’t see a smoke stack from an oil tanker arriving somewhere in Cuba during the second half of March, we’re in bad shape.”
Long haul flights to Cuba would probably have to schedule refueling stops in other countries, possibly in the Dominican Republic, he said.
American Airlines, which operates 11 daily flights from Miami to Cuba, said its planes could travel with enough fuel for the return flight.
Air Canada said that the planes bringing back Canadians in the coming days would fly in with extra fuel to Cuba and then make stops as necessary to refuel on the return journey. WestJet said it would fly to Cuba with enough fuel for the return trip.
Other airlines, including Iberia, announced changes to their cancellation policies to allow passengers more flexibility to leave Cuba. Air Europa said it would stop in Santo Domingo to refuel.
News of the jet fuel crisis was first reported by the Spanish news agency EFE, citing a NOTAM notification, a telecommunications message used by aviation authorities to alert pilots and airlines to immediate issues or hazards.
Cuba’s vice prime minister told Cuban state television that fuel resources would be redirected to essential services.
In a news conference last week, Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel insisted that Cuba is not and will not be a failed state.
“I am not an idealist. I know we are going to live through difficult times; we have before,” he said. “But we will overcome them together.”
Local state-run Cuban media outlets published news of a series of austerity measures.
Cimex, Cuba’s state-owned conglomerate, announced Saturday that it had suspended gasoline sales in Cuba’s local currency, as well as diesel sales in U.S. dollars.
Banks will operate on shorter schedules, and some hospitals canceled elective surgeries. Some nurses would be assigned to work near their homes, because they probably would not be able to make it to work because of the fuel shortage, the Tribuna newspaper reported.
Tourists were beginning to be transferred to other hotels so that Cuba would save energy by having fewer partially filled hotels, Canadian media reported.
Fabio Nina, a vice president of Air Century, a Dominican airline that flies to Cuba six times a week, said Cuban aviation authorities told him they could find fuel for his 50-seat jet this week but were less confident about next week.
“Eventually, if they don’t sort things out with Washington, they are going to run out of fuel completely,” Mr. Nina said. “Right now we don’t know what’s going to happen after this week. It’s a crazy, crazy, crazy situation.”
Reporting was contributed by David C. Adams in Miami, Niraj Chokshi in New York and Valerie Hopkins in Berlin.
Frances Robles is a Times reporter covering Latin America and the Caribbean. She has reported on the region for more than 25 years.
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