Cubana Airlines

Advantages: Price and good leg room
Disadvantages: Older DC10's used pretty noisy in Economy

...I discovered an article on Cubana airways. Since I used the airline last year in November and December why not write about my experience. Pre-flight experiences first. When researching and costing my trip to Cuba (Had to go as I was giving my sister's hand away in marriage - hard for some isn't it) I was getting many differing quotes and discovered the cheaper ones were with Cubana airways. So not wishing to put my family and myself at risk I thought ...
...Cubana Airways (CUB) wasn't all that good but it seemed that the people giving me their opinions had never actually used the airline but had had a friend who had. Eventually I discovered that most of the cross Atlantic fleet was subleased from Air France and serviced by them as well (I didn't ask what type of aircraft so they didn't tell me - more on this later). A good start I thought to myself. I'd used an independent travel operator who arranged ... Read review

Advantages: Price
Disadvantages: Old plane, indifferent service

...him. Welcome to Cubana airlines - certainly the flight that customer service forgot! Cubana is the Cuban national airline that recently celebrated 75 years in (and out) of the air. Since 1981, 8 of its roughly third of a million flights have resulted in disaster - a failure rate of 24 flights per million, a figure which places Cubana firmly at the foot of the airline safety stats. While even this tally provides some positive perspective about just ...
...Flyers on Cubana also need to be prepared for a long wait on the ground. Our departure was over four hours late, which I believe is standard. A mix up extended our delay; the wrong seating plan was used at check in, meaning that passengers were given tickets for non-existent seats. Fortunately, our plane was little over half occupied, and so the problem was resolved within an hour. Of course, even before this little mix up, we had already been exposed ... Read review

Advantages: Flight safety of trans-atlantic flights no longer a concern
Disadvantages: Safety feel of internal flights in Cuba

...somewhat concerned with our Air Cubana trans-Atlantic flight from London to Holguin. We were much relieved though to learn that new Airbus A330 planes leased from Norwegian Novair are now used on this route. Economy class is a big squeeze and while this is bearable on an Easyjet flight to Amsterdam it becomes rather straining on a nine-hour flight. Don't expect too much in terms of in-flight entertainment – bring your own books and games. The quantity ...
...worrying chapter to the Air Cubana story was our internal flight from Holguin to Havana. Contrary to all expectations the plane took off 30 minutes BEFORE scheduled departure. 40 minutes into the flight we were forced to make an emergency landing at Camaguey airport due to "operational difficulties" which turned out to be a technical fault with the old Russian plane. After a 5-hour wait (for a spare part to be flown in from Havana) and a simple meal ... Read review

Advantages: Beatiful country
Disadvantages: Scared to death in the air

Cuba is definitely one of the jewels in the Caribbean, but travelling within the country on an internal flight has to be experienced to be believed. All flights within Cuba are controlled through the government run national airline Cubana, on my last visit to this beautiful isle we flew from Havana to Camaquey. The plane that we flew on was a very old Russian built twin prop, which looked as though it should have had pride of place in an aircraft ...
...rusting hulk of metal my heart sank. The site and smell of a full toilet was nauseous in the extreme. We were shown toward the front of the plane, and placed in a seat that could not be set in an upright condition. The plane did eventually take off and reached a cruising altitude of about 12000 feet. When the air conditioning system kicked in, the plane appeared to fill with smoke; this really freaked my wife. She saw the “smoke” and genuinely ... Read review