The international return of Cubana’s Tupolev Tu-204: flights between Havana and Caracas

Cubana de Aviación inaugurated its regular flights between Havana (HAV), Cuba; and Caracas (CCS), Venezuela, with the Tupolev Tu-204, being the first international route of the Russian model since its recovery.

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The state airline will continue to resume routes with its own aircraft as it receives aircraft after the maintenance carried out in Russia.

It should be recalled that after seven years, Cubana de Aviación resumed operations with its Tupolev 204 with registration CU-T1702, after undergoing extensive maintenance in Russia, the country of origin of these aircraft.

A lack of suitable components for its Russian aircraft had previously prevented Cubana from maintaining the fleet. Company officials have attributed this difficulty to economic blockades imposed by the United States.

In 2019, Cuba and Russia reached an agreement that allowed heavy maintenance called Check-D and Check-C to be carried out in the aircraft’s country of origin.

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At that time, Cubana de Aviación was able to operate two Tupolev 204-100B (CU-T1701 and CU-T1702), two Tupolev 204-100CE (CU-C1700 and CU-C1703) and four Illuyshyn 96-300 (CU-T1250, CU-T1251, CU-T1254 and CU-T171717).

In addition to Caracas, it also operates a couple of flights per week to Holguín (HOG) and governmental flights.