Cuban civil aviation is gradually recovering, says official

HAVANA, Cuba, Nov 19 (ACN) Roberto Peña Samper, president of the Cuban Aviation Corporation S.A. said on Thursday that a gradual recovery of the aviation industry is in sight, despite the great affectations caused by the pandemic.

Peña Samper referred to the negative impact of COVID-19, a worldwide trend, which is expected to close the year with results far below those obtained in 2019 in Cuba.

Air cargoes have also decreased, although it was a process that was maintained with vitality in previous months due to the permanence of cargo and humanitarian flights.

In this sense, the process of cargo handling has decreased by 55 percent with respect to 2019.

He pointed out that the sanitary control measures have made it possible to guarantee the safety of passengers, crew members and workers and to minimize the risk of introducing sick people into the country.
He highlighted that the operations have been secured to ensure strict compliance with biosafety protocols.

In relation to Cubana de Aviación's activity, he informed that commercial operations to Nueva Gerona have started with two daily frequencies and flights are carried out every other day to the eastern provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Holguín.

We know that the demand is much higher than the offer, but actions are taken to increase new destinations, starting from the availability of aircrafts, limited today by the impact of the US blockade, he said.
In spite of the complex scenario, an intense investment process was developed in Cuban airports after the stop of activities last March; it was outstanding the paving of asphalt mixture of the runways and parking platforms for the aircrafts, as well as the actions to increase the volume of loads.

The president of CACSA recalled the humanitarian operations in the airports in the past months as well as the transfer of the collaborators and the transportation of medicines and medical supplies.
Finally, he highlighted the important role played by the workers in the field, who are the protagonists of the effort deployed.