I am supposed to fly to Cuba and the only carrier is Cubana. From what I’ve read on the Internet they are the worst when it comes to safety. I will be going in and out with flights CUB170/CUB171.
Most of the comments I’ve read were for old Russian planes and I’m not sure they still apply to Airbus A320.
So, is it safe to fly Cubana these days with that airplane ?
Where are you flying from? Cubana is definately NOT the only carrier going to Cuba. Mexicana, Air France, Air Canada, Virgin Atlantic, Alitialia, LTU, and many,many others all fly to Cuba. A little more info on your departure point would be helpful.
sorry, I assumed the origin for a flight # is always the same.
I am flying Montreal - Varadero - Montreal.
Thanks!
Ahhhh, my mistake. Didn’t see the flight numbers. Air Canada flies that route. I’d try to change if I were you. No first hand experience with Cubana, but would definitely feel more secure on Air Caaanada, Eh?
Air Canada, Air Transat, Sunwing, and SkyService, which are all Canadian airlines with modern aircraft, all fly Montreal-Varadero nonstop.
yeah, but my package deals for those dates have only Cubana ( leaving on a Monday! ).
Are they really that bad ? Even if they use an A320 ?
No, they aren’t that bad. They tend to be late and apparently the food and service is bad and the English skills of their flight attendants are poor, but they haven’t had an accident since 1999. Being late might be especially bad for your flight because its scheduled arrival time into Cuba is 11:40 PM. If it’s late you might end up getting there at 2 or 3 AM.
Yes, the reason you’re stuck with Cubana is that you’re trying to leave on a Monday and most of the Canadian tour operators fly on weekends. Why are you so heartset on that departure day and tour operator?
Cubana has 44 occurrences in the Aviation Safety Network. This includes not only accidents but also hijackings.
The last accident was in 2003 involving an AN-24RV.
A YAK-42 crashed on 25 Dec 1999. This was four days after a DC-10-30 operated by AOM for Cubana crashed.
Cubana is relatively safe, although not as safe as USA airlines. It does have more modern aircraft than it use to which helps improve safety.
My opinion is that you really don’t have anything to worry about. Enjoy your vacation!
I live in Toronto, and my buddy here flies Cubana once a week on his regular trip to pick up cigars in Cuba - sells them all over the world.
He leaves out of Pearson, and has flown all over Cuba, on Cubana, and has never encountered any type of problem what-so-ever.
In fact, the departure times are far better than any of the Canadian charter companies. As for Cubana, they fly both Airbus A320’s and brand spanking new Tupolev TU-204E’s. My friend flew on the Tupolev and thought it was an Airbus!!!
For the record, Canadians trained the first Cubana jet airliner pilots, and Air Canada leased Cubana it’s first Jets!!, as for flying out of Montreal on Cubana, you’ll be flying on one of their A320’s - where they have a 100 percent perfect safety record.
As you can imagine during their Soviet expansion days, airplane parts were hard to come by - thus many aviation problems. Today, the aircraft have to met or exceed all requirements that our Canadian airlines do.
Better dead than red I always say…If I want to see cubanos, I just go to Miami for the weekend.
I took a plane for my vacation this summer to go to Cuba. I took a flight from ewr to Cancun. Then from Cancun to Cuba my destination. My plane was a Cubana Yak-42. Once I boarded, it was like an oven in there. The a.c was on with smoke coming from it. It turns out we were stranded in Cancun for 9 hours since the planed had to be fixed. We took off at night and my heart was pounding thinking the airplane was going to crash. But everything worked out. But you shouldnt worry you might get an airbus. Depends from where you are flying from. Cubana never even had an accident before.
nuff said
edit Hey are you an American Citizen?
Did you read the post by Damiross above?
I saw the Cubana Yak-42 depart CUN when I was there a few weeks ago.
All the Canadian flights are operated with A320’s (If they flew their Tu-204’s up there and it was to have a mechanical problem, they would have to fly someone and a bunch of parts up to fix it as nobody in Canada is trained to work on them or has parts for it).
I would never book that flight as if it did go mechanical, you would be totally stuck there.