United Airlines is cutting its flights from Newark to Havana on October 29, almost one 12 months after resuming flights to Cuba.
Cutting flights from Newark to Havana
In late November last 12 months, United Airlines began flying to Cuba after a greater than two-and-a-half-year hiatus. Currently, United flies to Havana from its hubs at Newark Liberty International Airport and Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Most flights are operated by United Express carriers, Mesa Airlines out of Houston, and Republic Airways out of Newark. United does operate just a few monthly flights as mainline on its Boeing 737-800s.
Photo: Lukas Souza | Easy Flying
In response to schedule data from Cirium, United is ready to fly its last flight from Newark to Havana on October 28. Operations from Houston will proceed each day. United confirmed the route cut to Easy Flying and reiterated it could proceed flights from Houston year-round. The airline is working with affected customers to .
Lower than a 12 months ago, on November 14, United aircraft touched down in Havana for the primary time since 2019, when the US Federal Government prohibited air travel between the 2 countries to extend economic pressure on the Cuban government. Under a brand new administration, the US lifted restrictions to Cuban airports outside Havana in May 2022, but tourism to Cuba was still prohibited.
“We’ll make it easier for families to go to their relatives in Cuba and for authorized U.S. travelers to have interaction with the Cuban people, attend meetings, and conduct research.” – Ned Price, Spokesperson, United States State Department
The ban only affected American Airlines, which served six destinations outside Havana before the travel ban was implemented.
Current US-Cuba market
Today, the US-Cuba market has fully recovered in comparison with when the travel ban was put in place when considering the variety of flights. In January 2020, 1,240 flights were scheduled to Cuba, in comparison with 1,448 this month. One notable difference is the variety of routes to Cuba from states apart from Florida. In January 2020, JetBlue flew to Havana from Boston and Delta from Atlanta. Each routes have since been cut.
United is the one carrier to supply each day service to Havana outside of Florida, with its flights from Houston. JetBlue still flies from John F. Kennedy International Airport but not each day.
Photo: Lukas Souza | Easy Flying
Five US airlines have flights scheduled from six US airports to Cuba this month, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, United Airlines, and Southwest Airlines. American has probably the most flights to Cuba, with 832 flights scheduled this month, a 55.3% increase over its operations in January 2020. Southwest has the second-largest schedule, with 248 flights this June. The low-cost carrier flies to Havana from Tampa and Fort Lauderdale.
Delta and United each have 120 flights, and JetBlue has 128. All three carriers are operating barely below their January 2020 numbers, with United having the smallest margin, 3.3%. With JetBlue cutting Boston-Havana and reducing other routes, it now operates a schedule of 57.6% reduced when put next to January 2020.