Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas Launches Barcelona-Havana Route

Spanish Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas landed at Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport on Sunday July 2, with a flight from Barcelona, thus officially opening the route between the Spanish city and the Cuban capital.

The ceremony, held at Terminal 3 of Havana’s airport, Departure Door 11B, was headed by Julio Martinez Sola, Executive Vice president of Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas, and Ana Margarita Godoy Guzman, Deputy Director of Cubana de Aviación, who cut the ribbon in front of over 100 passengers that were waiting to board the Airbus A340-300 and fly back to Barcelona.

This is a codeshare project between Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas, which operates the flight, and Cubana de Aviación, in charge of the marketing.

Cubana de Aviación worked to rescue the route after twenty years, since flights in that period were only operated from Madrid.

The southern region of France has been included by connecting Barcelona and Havana, since people could only fly from Paris and they can now do it from the Catalonia.

Mr. Julio Martinez Sola, Executive Vice president of Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas, recalled that the project has gone through a negotiation process since 2015, as they had to deal with a problem related to insurance companies because of the U.S. blockade against Cuba.

This route has been successfully marketed over the past three months, with positive occupancy levels. That’s why the executives are assessing the introduction of a second frequency for the winter season, starting in November.

Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas will cover the Barcelona-Havana route with a weekly flight, on Saturdays, landing at the Cuban capital at 05:00 hours.

“Spain has a 16 percent growth rate as a market. We have received some 69,500 visitors this year and, therefore, we foresee a successful future for this new route and welcome it. We strongly believe that these flights will offer visitors a unique travel experience,” the executive said.

The representatives of both airlines also announced that they are planning to enhance the operations with a Barcelona - Havana - Santiago de Cuba triangulated route, which is "very important for tourism circuits,” according to Julio Martinez.

The Spanish company is the fourth airline to fly from that country to Cuba, a destination that already operates scheduled flights with Iberia, Air Europa and Evelop, but they all fly from Madrid.