Barely flying: examining the state of the Cubana de Aviación fleet in 2025
October 26, 2025
Cubana de Aviación, the Government-owned national carrier of Cuba, has had a turbulent history in its 96-year existence. Since its formation in 1929, the airline has had several owners, operated under various names, and has operated an eclectic fleet of aircraft throughout this time.
With the news that the Cuban state carrier has recently received its only operational jet aircraft back into service (an Ilyushin IL-96-300 that had been on long-term maintenance in Belarus), Aerospace Global News takes a deep dive into the fleet history and current state of this fascinating, if not rather idiosyncratic, carrier.
Cubana – a brief fleet history
In the early days of the airline, Ford Trimotors and Lockheed Model 10 Electras fulfilled the carrier’s requirement on domestic routes and its sole international routes to Key West and Miami in Florida. These were later replaced with the venerable Douglas DC-3 and its doppelganger, the Curtis C-46. In 1944, Cuba became one of the founding countries of ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
In April 1948, with the acquisition of its first Douglas DC-4, the airline began its first transatlantic route from Havana to Madrid. By the early 1950s, the DC-4s were also gone, replaced by Lockheed Constellations on its routes to the US and Europe. Vickers Viscounts made up the backbone of its short-haul and domestic fleet.
Super Constellations quickly joined the fleet, allowing the airline to spread its wings to New York, Mexico City, Rome, the Azores, and Lisbon, as well as the route to Madrid. In the mid-1950s. Cubana placed orders for four long-range Bristol Britannias and four Vickers Super Viscount aircraft for its international services.
The first Bristol Britannia (registered CU-T668) was delivered in late 1958 and was placed in service on the airline’s New York route. On 17 January 1959, one of Cubana’s new Britannias set a record for the New York to Havana route, flying it in three hours and 28 minutes, the fastest ever for a commercial flight on that particular route.
Cubana enters the jet age – almost
In 1958, Cubana placed an order for its first two Boeing 707 jets, becoming one of the first Latin American carriers to order the revolutionary new passenger jet. However, the order was cancelled in 1960, when the relationship between the US and Cuba deteriorated significantly.
With the US breaking off diplomatic relations with Cuba in January 1961 and the imposition of a total US embargo in February 1962, Cubana had little choice but to look to the Soviet Union to obtain new aircraft for its fleet.
The first Soviet-built aircraft type delivered was the twin-engine, piston-prop Ilyushin IL-14 in late 1961. Soon after, Ilyushin IL-18 four-engine turboprops were delivered and began to be used on Cubana’s domestic services. They were swiftly joined by twin-engined Antonov AN-24s and AN-26s, along with the four-engined AN-12.
These aircraft replaced all of Cubana’s Viscounts, Super Viscounts, and all of its US-built aircraft. Except for the remaining Bristol Britannias, Cubana’s fleet would now be exclusively made up of Soviet-built aircraft.
With the arrival of the long-range Ilyushin IL-62 four-engined jet in the late 1960s, Cubana replaced its remaining Britannias and started all-jet service to Europe on its already existing routes to Madrid and Prague (via Gander in Canada). The fleet was later supplemented with the arrival of Tupolev TU-154s, Ilyushin IL-76s, Yakovlev YAK-40s, and the slightly larger YAK-42.
Leased aircraft bolster the fleet
In the mid-1970s, Cubana leased a pair of Douglas DC-8 aircraft from Air Canada for its Canadian and Caribbean operations. These aircraft were leased with support from the Canadian government, as part of bilateral trade agreements between Canada and Cuba at the time.
After the leases expired (with one aircraft being destroyed by a bomb while on the ground in Havana), the all Soviet-built fleet prevailed throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
Cubana had received its last three completely new IL-62Ms in late 1990 and early 1991 from the Kazan, USSR, factory that manufactured these aircraft. In the years since, the airline has also operated a variety of aircraft types under lease agreements with foreign airlines.
These include the McDonnell Douglas DC-10, numerous Airbus A320s and A330s, plus a Boeing 767 and some Fokker F-27s acquired from Iberia.
The current fleet largely remains Russian-built
In late 2005, Cubana received its first new long-range Ilyushin IL-96-300 wide-body jet from Russia, to replace some of the leased Western-built wide-bodies and its Soviet-era aircraft. Other IL-96-300s were later delivered. New medium-range Russian Tupolev TU-204 jets were also ordered.
During the August 2007 MAKS Airshow in Moscow, Cubana signed a $150 million contract for the purchase and confirmation of additional TU-204s as well as new twin-engine AN-158 aircraft for shorter flights. While a small number of turboprop ATR42s have joined the company for domestic flights in the years since, the fleet has largely remained Russian-built.
However, with the airline currently suffering from a lack of spare parts, financial support, and consequently languishing as a shadow of its former self, the majority of its fleet is laid up and in long-term storage in José Martí International Airport in Havana (HAV).
The fleet is reported to be in various states of airworthiness due to a lack of spares and local technical expertise to return them to an airworthy standard.
The current Cubana fleet
ATR72-200
According to data supplied by ch-aviation, the aircraft has two ATR72-200s in its fleet. These were delivered to the airline group in November 1995 and June 1997, making them 30.5 and 29.4 years old, respectively. Cubana’s ATR 72s were originally purchased for Aero Caribbean, Cuba’s domestic airline. In 2015, it was merged with Cubana, and the ATRs were absorbed by Cubana.
Out of the entire current Cubana fleet, these two aircraft appear to be the only two flying regular passenger services. The airline also has one ATR42-500, which it uses solely for VIP and governmental flights, and which is operated by its subsidiary Aero Gaviota. This aircraft is 23.7 years old.
Antonov 158
Ordered in 2007, the airline’s six Antonov AN-158 twinjet aircraft are all listed as parked/stored at Havana Airport. The ages of these aircraft vary between 10.5 and 12.6 years, with the first being delivered in April 2013 and the last in July 2015.
The AN-158-200 series, as once operated by Cubana, is a regional passenger aircraft with a max capacity of 102 passengers, a range of 1,625 miles (2,600 km), and a maximum payload of 9.8 tons. The model is a stretched version of the Antonov AN-148 jet. When operational, Cubana flew its 158s in a 98-seat configuration.
Ilyushin IL-96
The airline still has four of these four-engined behemoths of yesteryear on its books, although only one of them (registered as CU-T1250) is listed as airworthy.
In fact, it was CU-T1250 that was recently ferried from long-term maintenance in Minsk, Belarus, back to Havana to rejoin the airline’s fleet. The aircraft completed the multi-leg ferry flight from Minsk to Havana between 11 and 12 October, according to flight tracking data obtained from FlightRadar24.
The aircraft departed Minsk (MSQ) on October 11, stopping in St. Petersburg (LED) in Russia and Reykjavik (KEF) in Iceland before making the nearly nine-hour transatlantic crossing to Havana. Cubana flight number CU1250 touched down at José Martí International Airport at 18:48 local time on October 12 after completing the journey from Belarus.
According to reports, the airline will recommence flights to Europe with this aircraft in the winter of 2025/26, with Madrid being the likely first destination.
According to ch-aviation, Cubana’s four IL-96-300s range in age from 19.2 to 32.8 years. CU-T1250 was delivered to the carrier in December 2005. It is configured to accommodate 262 passengers in a two-class layout – 18 in business class and 244 in economy class.
Tupolev TU-204 – passenger variant
The TU-204 was designed as the Russian equivalent of the Boeing 757 or the Airbus A321. Seating a maximum of 210 passengers, the aircraft first flew in 1995. The Tu-204-100 has a maximum take-off weight of 103 metric tons and a range of 2,500 miles (4,600 kilometres) with 196 passengers in a two-class seating configuration.
Cubana ordered a pair of TU-204-100Es in 2007, and its two passenger-carrying variants were delivered in December of that year, making them over 18 years old. Its pair of aircraft are configured in a 178 passenger layout featuring 12 business class and 164 economy class seats.
Both of Cubana’s aircraft are currently listed as parked/stored at Havana Airport. Neither has flown in recent years. One of them, registered CU-T1702, flew from Cuba to Russia on July 4, 2019, to undergo the Check-D at a maintenance centre (MRO) in Ulyanovsk. It returned to Cuba in September 2022 after spending three years away.
Tupolev TU-204 – cargo variant
In addition to its pair of TU-204 passenger aircraft, Cubana operates a single TU-204C dedicated freighter.
Delivered to the carrier in February 2009, the aircraft has not operated for the carrier in recent years, having last flown in 2017, and remains in storage in Havana.
Is there any way back for Cubana?
With its fleet largely grounded, Cubana is not the airline it once was. Hamstrung by a shortage of vital spare parts to keep its fleet airworthy and a chronic lack of financial support from the central government in Cuba, the airline is unlikely to return to its former glory days anytime soon.
Using wet-leased aircraft to maintain a minimal presence on key routes has been one way the airline has preserved an element of its flying schedule in recent years. However, overseas modern leased aircraft do not come cheap, and the strategy simply diverts vital funds away from the airline resuming services with its own fleet.
Until the international sanctions on Russian exports (imposed after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022) are lifted and the airline receives substantial lifeline funding from the Cuban government, it seems that Cubana’s planes will remain on the ground, with their owner struggling to avoid joining the ever-growing list of airline failures.
Featured image – Ole Simon / Wikimedia Commons
