Aviation History
Cubana de Aviación, founded in 1929, is one of the oldest airlines in the Americas and became Cuba's national carrier after the 1959 revolution, when it was nationalized under the new government. The decades-long US trade embargo, imposed from 1960-62, cut Cubana off from US aircraft, parts and financing, pushing it toward Soviet-bloc aircraft and leaving the airline's fleet chronically constrained — a dynamic that persists in modified form today despite a brief 2016 opening of scheduled US-Cuba air service that was later curtailed. Cuban civil aviation has also been marked by tragedy, including the 1976 bombing of Flight 455 and the 2018 crash of Flight 972, the deadliest in Cuban aviation history.
Founded as Compañía Nacional Cubana de Aviación Curtiss, Cubana became one of the oldest continuously operating airlines in Latin America.
Following the Cuban Revolution, Cubana de Aviación was nationalized and reorganized as the state carrier under the new government.
The US trade embargo, imposed in the early 1960s, blocked Cubana's access to American aircraft and spare parts, forcing a shift to Soviet-bloc aircraft such as the Ilyushin Il-62 and Il-18; the embargo's effects on Cuban aviation have persisted, in evolving form, for over sixty years.
A Cubana DC-8 was bombed off the coast of Barbados by anti-Castro militants on October 6, 1976, killing all 73 people aboard, one of the deadliest acts of aviation terrorism in the Western Hemisphere before 2001.
The collapse of the Soviet Union triggered Cuba's 'Special Period,' causing severe fuel and spare-parts shortages that sharply curtailed Cubana's operations through the 1990s.
Under a period of US-Cuba diplomatic normalization, scheduled commercial flights between the two countries resumed for the first time in over 50 years; several US carriers later scaled back or suspended these routes as policy shifted again from 2019 onward.
A leased Boeing 737 operating as Cubana Flight 972 crashed on takeoff from Havana on May 18, 2018, killing 112 of 113 people aboard — the deadliest aviation accident in Cuban history.
Cubana de Aviación · Aerogaviota
Wikipedia, aviation accident investigation reports, historical news archives — note: US-Cuba aviation policy has shifted repeatedly and remains subject to change