Spanish airlines, hotel groups reassess Cuba as tourism demand weakens
Iberia will suspend Havana flights in June as fuel shortages, blackouts, and weak demand force Spanish hotel groups to trim Cuba exposure.
The Cuba vacation pipeline that once looked dependable is starting to crack where it hurts most: the flights in and the rooms left empty. Iberia said it will temporarily suspend its direct Havana service starting in June, with a hope of returning in November if conditions improve, while Air Europa keeps watching the route and World2Fly is down to a single Wednesday flight.
That pullback is more than a scheduling nuisance. Since February, airlines have been forced to cut frequencies and, in some cases, stop in the Dominican Republic to refuel because Havana has not had enough kerosene to get aircraft across the Atlantic. Cuban aviation authorities warned in February that jet fuel would not be available at nine airports, including José Martí International Airport in Havana, from February 11 to March 11. Air Canada suspended flights after that notice, and other carriers shifted refueling plans to the Dominican Republic, Cancun, or Nassau.
The demand problem is just as visible on the ground. ONEI said Cuba received 184,833 international visitors in January 2026, down 5.9% from January 2025, while total travelers fell 9.2% to 240,578. In its tourism statistics chapter, ONEI says those figures matter because arrivals, occupancy, and revenue are used to analyze economic development and guide strategy. The numbers are landing far below the government’s expectations: 2025 international arrivals were about 1.8 million, well short of the 2.6 million target and still below the more than 4 million annual visitors Cuba drew before the pandemic.
Spanish hotel groups are responding the way airlines do when a route stops making sense: by protecting what is left and cutting the rest. Meliá has already acknowledged lower revenue in Cuba and closed three hotels under its compactación strategy, while Minor, the former NH group, returned management of two properties. Reuters-linked reporting has also described heavy discounting by Meliá and Gaviota to fill beds that were going empty anyway.
The pressure on tourism is tied directly to Cuba’s wider energy collapse. Reuters reported that Cuba’s private sector had received about 30,000 barrels of U.S.-supplied fuel so far this year, even though the island had recently needed about 100,000 barrels a day of imported fuel. Miguel Díaz-Canel said Cuba had not received any fuel in three months. Reuters also reported that international tourist arrivals plunged 56% in February from a year earlier. For Spanish airlines and hotel groups, the calculation is no longer about riding out a weak season. It is about whether Cuba can still support the basic mechanics of a tourism market at all.
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