LATAM airline restarted its flights to Havana
HAVANA, Oct. 30 The Chilean airline LATAM resumed operations this Sunday in Havana after three and a half years without flying to the island from the South American continent.The first flight arrived at the José Martí International Airport in the Cuban capital with 116 passengers on board from Lima, Peru, and according to a note from the CubaYes portal, the airline will maintain four weekly frequencies.
The resumption of LATAM trips will also serve to strengthen commercial relations between Chile, Peru and Cuba, stated the Chilean ambassador to Cuba, Patricia Esquinazi Marín.
Likewise, his Peruvian counterpart in Havana, Gonzalo Guillén, said that these connections will help “people visit and learn about the culture, gastronomy, and hospitality of the Caribbean Island and that Cubans can also get to know other nations in the South.”
LATAM flights will arrive in Havana on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from destinations such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay, which Cuban authorities expect to increase the number of visitors from those countries to Cuba.
Regarding this, the commercial director of the Ministry of Tourism (Mintur), Giana Galindo Enríquez, declared to the Cuban News Agency that this is “an opportunity for visitors who wish to get to know Cuba as a tourist destination, and it is a new door that “It opens from South America to Cuba.”
In addition, the board emphasized that this strategy is aimed at recovering the tourism market from those countries and joins the connectivity that the island currently has with the Copa airline.
LATAM began its operations in Cuba in 2011 and before the Covid-19 pandemic, it transported more than 90,000 passengers, with an occupancy rate that exceeded 90%.
For this reason, Galindo described the return of these flights to Havana as “very important”, not only for visitors but also for Cubans residing in South American countries who will now have this route to connect with Havana.
