Cubana de Aviación (Cubana), Cuba’s state-owned flag carrier, has restored a rare Russian-built widebody to service. One of its Ilyushin Il-96s (registration CU-T1250) completed a multi-leg ferry flight from Minsk, Belarus, to Havana, Cuba, between October 11 and 12, as reported by FlightRadar. The aircraft will reportedly be deployed on flights to Europe this winter.
Cubana operates a small and very outdated fleet, primarily made up of Soviet-era aircraft such as Antonovs, Tupolevs and the Ilyushin widebodies. Years of sanctions and economic hardship have left the carrier unable to maintain more than a handful of active aircraft at a time, and its scheduled services are irregular and prone to unexpected interruptions due to maintenance issues or lack of fuel.
Jetting From Minsk To Havana
Cubana owns four Il-96s, three of which were delivered to the airline directly, with the fourth acquired from 
Aeroflot in 2014. Two have been withdrawn and placed in long-term storage for nearly a decade. A third has been parked at Havana’s José Martí International Airport since 2021. It is the fourth, which also underwent heavy maintenance in Russia in 2023 and last operated a scheduled flight between Caracas and Havana in May, that has been undergoing a service in Minsk since the summer.
The Il-96 has a reported range of 5,400 nautical miles (10,000 km) with a 30-ton payload, sufficient to fly non-stop from Minsk to Havana, especially if flying an empty ferry flight. But the Il-96 has historically underperformed in range, so the decision was made to conduct a multi-leg flight. The aircraft departed Minsk on October 11, stopping in St. Petersburg just over an hour later, before making the four-hour flight to Reykjavík. Its final leg took it over Newfoundland and down the east coast of the US, before landing in Havana nearly nine hours later on October 12.
CU-T1250 has not flown since, but according to Arsenio Arocha Elías‑Moisés, Cubana’s general director, it is being prepared for future transatlantic flights. He 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.”
The Struggling Cubana Fleet
Cubana has a fleet of 17 aircraft, but only four of them, including the recently returned Il-96, are actually active. Another four remain parked in Havana, while a further nine are in long-term storage, and given the high costs of restoration and low demand, are unlikely to ever fly again.
|
The Cubana Fleet In 2025 |
||||
|
Type |
Active |
Parked |
Stored |
Avg Age (Years) |
|
ATR 42/72 |
3 |
– |
– |
27.9 |
|
Antonov An-158 |
– |
– |
6 |
11.7 |
|
Ilyushin Il-96 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
20.0 |
|
Tupolev Tu-204 |
– |
3 |
1 |
18.0 |
|
Total |
4 |
4 |
9 |
17.7 |
The oldest and most active aircraft in the fleet are its ATRs, which were acquired secondhand in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and are now approaching an average age of 30 years. These are used to fly short haul domestic such as from Havana to Santiago de Cuba, or to regional destinations such as Managua. But economic challenges and maintenance difficulties have meant that they operate only sporadically, and only one has reported flights in the past month.
Cubana’s other two aircraft types are also of Russian origin, and both are tales of disappointment:
- Antonov An-158: A short-lived and ultimately failed chapter in the fleet history, defined by constant technical issues and political tensions. The airline operated of the regional jet between 2013 and 2018, when its fleet was grounded due to recurring problems and safety concerns. None of the six aircraft have flown since.
- Tupolev Tu-204: Cubana has four of Russia’s answer to the Boeing 757, two passenger and two cargo versions, but they have spent a significant portion of their service grounded due to maintenance difficulties. Last year one was restored to service for flights to Caracas, but it has been grounded in Ulyanovsk for maintenance since June.
A New Lease Of Life For The IL-96?
In a twist of fate, the Il-96 might be having a rebirth. As Russia faces extensive sanctions on its aviation sector, it is turning internally to try to meet its own needs. It has no other viable widebody designs, so it is bringing the Il-96 back from the dead, re-imagined with a new, longer and higher capacity design called the Il-96-400M. The prototype of the new variant took to the skies for the first time in November 2023.
However, despite bold statements from the Russian government, there is still a lot of doubt around the -400M program. The core Il-96 design was a commercial failure, a generation behind its aviation peers even when it made its first flight nearly 40 years ago. While the -400M update promises capacity increases, the same inefficiencies in design, engines, and production remain. It isn’t feasible for Russia to produce more than one of two of the aircraft a year, and even then, the lack of any buyers means it would have to be entirely government-subsidized.
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