Cuba Says No Jet Fuel Will Be Available at its Nine International Airports for the Next Month

Havana’s José Martí International Airport on Sunday informed airlines that no jet fuel will be available at the country’s nine international airports for a month beginning at midnight ET Tuesday.

The airport said the notice applies to the Havana, Varadero, Cienfuegos, Santa Clara, Camagüey, Cayo Coco, Holguín, Santiago de Cuba and Manzanillo airports. The notice will remain in effect until midnight on March 10.

“This is a negative operational signal,” Ricardo Torres, a research fellow at American University, said in a LinkedIn post. Under this scenario, international airlines would need to arrive with additional fuel from their departure airports, plan refueling stops in third countries or potentially cancel flights, he said.

“Even temporary refueling constraints can force carriers to add technical stops, reshuffle rotations and reassess capacity–right when the sector is still far from a full recovery,” Torres added.

Cuba’s international arrivals fell last year fell by 17.8% from 2024 and remain 58% below prepandemic level of 4.28 million passengers in 2019, Torres said, citing data from Cuba’s Statistical Yearbook.

Sources familiar with airline operations told OPIS that they expect the notice will have a limited effect on air traffic between the U.S. and Cuba.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Monday called on the Trump administration to rescind a Jan. 29 executive order that would impose additional tariffs on countries that supply fuel to Cuba to avoid harming that country’s residents.

“It is very unfair to impose sanctions on countries that sell oil to Cuba,” Sheinbaum said.

She said her government is pursuing diplomatic channels to resume fuel supplies to the island.

Mexico became Cuba’s main fuel supplier after Venezuelan shipments were halted last month. Mexico last week said it sold $496 million worth of crude and fuels to Cuba in 2025.

Reporting by José Luis Adriano, jadriano@opisnet.com; Editing by Karla Omaña, komana@opisnet.com and Jeffrey Barber, jbarber@opisnet.com