As announced last April, Aerolineas Argentinas resumed its connection between Buenos Aires and Havana this Monday.
It does, it was announced, with three weekly flights between the two capitals, one more than before the company closed in Cuba in 2016.
Earlier, Mauricio Macri’s government decided to restructure the airline to reduce the deficit it represented for the state: nationalized in 2008, the company was costing the country around two million dollars a day.
The austerity plan had a significant impact on ships and consequently the routes operated were reduced. At that time, those responsible argued that Cuba had become a very expensive travel destination, which Havana complained about.
The company’s President assures that the connection “will help to deepen cultural, economic and tourist exchanges between the two countries”.
This Monday, the President of Aerolineas Argentinas, Pablo Ceriani, in statements to the official press, assured that the route “is in high demand from agencies and tour operators both from Argentina and from different places in the region”. the resumption of the connection “will help to deepen cultural, economic and tourist exchanges between the two countries”.
Similarly, the Minister of Tourism of Cuba in Argentina, Janet Ayala, stated that “this route is in high demand in the market because the main constraint on the growth of emissions from travelers to the island is the air connection”.
However, according to official information, Cuba is not a relevant tourist or commercial destination for Argentina. When Ceriani announced the resumption of flights to Havana three months ago, he did not provide any data that would allow assessing the profitability of this route.
Critics then attributed the decision to the political closeness between the Cuban regime and Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who is personally indebted to Raúl Castro and Díaz-Canel for having sheltered her daughter Florencia while she was in your country being investigated for money laundering.
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