Cuba Halts Refueling as Jet Fuel Runs Out

HAVANA — Cuba has notified international airlines that Jet A-1 will not be available for uplift on the island from Feb. 10 through Mar. 11, citing worsening fuel shortages, as flagged in a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) issued by the island.

Operationally, the immediate effect is less “all flights stop” and more how flights are operated: carriers that continue serving Cuba may need to tanker fuel in, accept payload/range penalties, or build schedules around technical refueling stops in nearby countries, an approach many airlines have used during prior fuel shortfalls.

The fuel squeeze is unfolding alongside broader energy constraints. Cuba has historically depended heavily on Venezuelan crude and products for parts of its fuel supply chain, and that those flows have been disrupted as Washington tightens pressure on the island’s access to oil.

Reuters reports that Russia, a longtime partner of Havana, has publicly described the situation as “critical,” with the Kremlin arguing that U.S. measures are compounding Cuba’s difficulties, underscoring how the aviation-fuel issue is now a visible symptom of a wider energy crunch.

This is the kind of disruption that doesn’t need mass cancellations to bite: tankering and tech-stops add time, cost, and complexity, and can quickly erode the economics of leisure-heavy networks, especially when load factors and yields are already seasonally sensitive. 

Watch for “soft” schedule changes first (padding, refuel stops, downgauges), then selective frequency trims if the NOTAM window holds. As of Monday February 9, Air Canada (AC) and WestJet (WS) have shut down operations to Cuba until May 1, 2026, and later in the evening, Air Transat (TS) announced the same flight suspension until April 30, 2026