Cubana restores Il-96 quadjet for European winter routes

The Il-96 has an official range of about 5,400 nautical miles (10,000 km), but operational limitations required it to make several stops en route from Minsk. After departing on October 11, it stopped in St. Petersburg and Reykjavík before flying over Newfoundland down the east coast of the United States and landing in Havana nearly nine hours later on October 12.

Arsenio Arocha Elías‑Moisés, General Director of Cubana de Aviación said: “In the winter, we will be flying to Europe with two flights to Germany and two flights to Spain. We also aim to increase domestic flights to facilitate the movement of tourists within the country.”

Of Cubana’s fleet of 17 aircraft, only four—including the newly returned Il-96—are currently active. Four more are parked in Havana while nine remain stored long term; restoration costs and low demand make their return unlikely. The oldest active planes are ATRs acquired secondhand about twenty-five years ago.

Cubana’s ATRs handle short-haul domestic routes such as Havana–Santiago de Cuba or regional destinations like Managua but fly sporadically due to economic difficulties; only one operated last month. Other types—the Antonov An-158 regional jet (grounded since 2018 due to technical problems) and Tupolev Tu-204 (mostly grounded by maintenance needs)—have also seen little recent use.

Russia is attempting a revival of the Il-96 design with a new version called the Il-96-400M amid international sanctions that limit access to Western-built jets. A prototype flew for the first time in November 2023 but doubts remain about its prospects because production rates are low and there is little commercial interest outside government support.