The Russian airline Aeroflot restarted its flights from Moscow to Cuba on Saturday, suspended since European countries prohibited Russia from using their airspace in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
Rossiya Airlines, part of the Russian Aeroflot group, resumed its regular flights to the island on July 1, with an initial frequency of two weekly flights.
“The first flight of what will start as a twice-weekly service took off on Saturday for the Cuban resort of Varadero from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport,” Aeroflot told Reuters.
This week, the Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed the return of operationsnoting that it works “to expand international passenger air transport” despite the difficulties that arose from the sanctions imposed by the West.
The Russian spokeswoman, María Zajárova, assured the trips to Cuba “will give new impetus” to bilateral ties, in addition to helping to restore the tourist flow of Russian citizens to the island.
The flights will be carried out on Boeing 777 wide-body aircraft.
Initially they will leave Moscow on Thursdays and Saturdays, although a third flight will be incorporated from September 5, which will operate on Tuesdays.
Last May, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko announced that regular flights to Cuba skirting the airspace of “enemy” countries would resume in July.
As he said then, the provision responded to a presidential order. Aeroflot is a mixed company, with 51 percent owned by the Russian government.
“The corresponding directive was sent to the Aeroflot company,” he stressed.
The senior official also anticipated that Moscow plans to increase the frequency of flights with regular and charter companies to the Caribbean nation this year.
The measure would help the Castro regime to reinforce the trips of Russian tourists to its territory, at a time when the country is going through a serious economic crisis that is also affecting tourism. Cuba has pushed to increase Russian tourism, in order to meet its ambitious goal of 3.5 million visitors in 2023.
“We support the ambition of the Cuban Minister of Tourism to increase the flow of tourists from Russia 500,000 visitors a year, which would place Russia as the leader in this sector, surpassing Canada,” Chernishenko said in May.
But the route that begins this Saturday was also widely used by resident Cubans who traveled to Russia to shop or emigrate, since the country does not require a visa.
Flights from Russia to Cuba were suspended in February 2022.
At the beginning of March of that year, Aeroflot announced that it would carry out two special flights to transport Russian tourists who were stranded in Cuba and Dominican Republic.
