Aviatsa is getting ready to launch a fresh direct route connecting Honduras and Cuba.
The Honduran airline Aviacion Tecnologica (Aviatsa) is looking to commence direct flights from San Pedro Sula to Cuba. This decision follows a market study indicating an unmet demand from travellers.
Felix Pacheco, representative of the airline Aviatsa and president of the Honduran Association of Airlines (Ahla), stated that they are awaiting permits to then commence the promotion and sale of tickets to Havana, Cuba. The plan is to have two weekly frequencies to Havana from Villeda Morales, on Mondays and Thursdays. "There is a need; many students are in Cuba, and many people travel for medical tourism." Although initially the charter flights would be to Havana, they aim to later travel to Holguin, a city in eastern Cuba.
"What we want is for San Pedro Sula to be the hub for travelling to Havana, allowing people from across the region to travel from the city, as currently they have to go to Panama, Nicaragua or the United States and travel from there to Cuba," he explained.
As reported by La Prensa, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, an average of 10,000 travellers annually moved between Honduras and Cuba.
The airline Aviatsa was founded on October 9, 2015, after obtaining an air operator certificate from the Aviation Authorities of the Central American country. Its fleet consists of a Boeing 737-200, which has a capacity of 120 people, and the airline focuses on providing domestic service within Honduras, connecting the cities of Roatán and Tegucigalpa.
Initially, the company was dedicated exclusively to domestic flights, but over the years, it expanded its destinations. Currently, the airline maintains a single-class cabin configuration on its flights, organised in rows of 3×3 seats.
If this air route were to materialise, Cuba would have three direct connections with Central America. So far, direct routes to the island are only operated from Panama and Nicaragua. Charter flights from various Cuban cities to Managua have been utilised by hundreds of thousands of Cubans in the past two years.
With the announcement of the new route, it's important to note that Cuban citizens intending to visit Honduras require a visa for entry. To determine the most suitable visa type, one must visit the Honduran Consulate in Cuba as part of this process.
On the other hand, international travellers heading to Cuba will need a tourist card (visa), which can be obtained through an online application on the VisaCuba website, the leading provider of tourist cards to Cuba, approved by the Cuban Consulate in the United Kingdom, and recommended by Lonely Planet and TripAdvisor. These tourist cards are single-entry documents and have a validity of 90 days, which can be extended to a total of 180 days after contacting the immigration authorities once in the country.