About Havana Airport

The Jose Marti International Airport in Havana is the main gateway in and out of Cuba for both Cuban residents and the rest of the world. It is located in one of Havana’s municipalities, Boyeros, about 15km south west of the main city of Havana itself. As you probably know, Havana is the capital city of Cuba and is home to over two million Spanish speaking residents, making it by far the largest city in the country with over quadruple the population of the next largest city, Santiago de Cuba.

The airport currently has three usable passenger terminals for both inbound and outbound international flights, with planes from all over America and the rest of the world landing and taking off from the airport every hour. There is also a fourth terminal for use by regional and local flights. To accommodate international passengers, the second terminal, Terminal 2, was constructed in 1988 with the specific purpose of attracting United States charter flights to the country. Ten years later in 1998 a third international terminal was also added.

The airport is operated by Empresa Cubana de Aeropuertos y Servicios Aeronáuticos S.A. and was originally called the Rancho-Boyeros Airport before being renamed as the Jose Marti International Airport in honour of Cuban patriot and poet Jose Marti.

As private Cuban citizens are not allowed to own aircraft due to socialist government rules, all aircraft have to belong to state owned airlines, international companies, or the military. As a result, only government or foreign-owned aircraft are allowed to fly from the airport.

Today, Copa Airlines is the airline with the most flights to and from the airport, with 34 flights operating each week to and from places like Panama City, Bogotá, and Mexico City.

As the only real large international airport in Cuba, it is both the biggest and busiest, serving over four million passengers each year. It currently handles flights from more than 25 international airlines and is home for Cuba’s own regional airlines: Cubana de Aviacion, Aerogaviota, as well as AeroCaribbean airlines. On top of this, it used to be the former Latin American hub for the Soviet (later Russian) airline Aeroflot.