Eastern Cuba Airports Back, Schedules Still Uneven

Published on Nov 11, 2025, 11:15 am CST

5 min read

Key points

Holguín's Frank País International restored operations on October 30, 2025
Santiago de Cuba's Antonio Maceo resumed core functions by October 31 to November 1, 2025
Canadian leisure flights to Holguín restarted November 5 and are ramping through mid-November
Santiago de Cuba is operating with limited services while wider recovery continues
Expect equipment swaps and uneven frequencies on eastern Cuba routes in November

Impact

Expect Day-by-Day Variability: Frequencies and aircraft types will shift as capacity ramps
Build Buffer On Connections: Leave extra time for missed or retimed domestic links
Watch For Equipment Swaps: Seat maps and cabins may change close to departure
Verify Your Airport: Holguín flights return first, Santiago's options remain thinner
Check Carrier Waivers: Some airlines still publish flexible policies around Melissa recovery

Holguín and Santiago de Cuba, the principal gateways to Cuba's east, have restored core airport functions after Hurricane Melissa. Frank País International Airport in Holguín resumed operations on October 30, 2025, and began receiving scheduled commercial traffic again on November 5. Antonio Maceo International Airport in Santiago de Cuba brought core services back by October 31 to November 1, with authorities continuing repairs on damaged facilities. Airlines are now phasing capacity in gradually, which means schedules will look uneven and aircraft assignments can change day by day across November.

Eastern Cuba's airports, status at a glance

Officials and local media confirmed that Holguín's airport restored operations on October 30 and moved quickly to reopen for tourism, with the first Canadian leisure flights scheduled for November 5. Santiago de Cuba's airport, hit harder by Melissa's winds and necessitating infrastructure checks, resumed aviation operations between October 31 and November 1 and continues staged repairs to airside and terminal areas.

In Santiago, authorities note broader transport recovery is still in progress, which can ripple into day-of-travel timing for airport access and domestic connectivity. Work continues on roads, bridges, and utilities as the province climbs back toward normal operations.

Active routes, by carrier and start date

Holguín, Frank País International (HOG):

Air Transat, Canada to Holguín, commercial flights resumed November 5, 2025, with service from Montreal and Toronto ramping across the month. Schedules show multiple weekly departures as the winter program firms up.
WestJet, Toronto to Holguín, operating again with confirmed movements in mid-November, including WS2730 tracked on November 11. Additional Canadian city pairs appear on winter timetables in the coming weeks.
Air Canada, Toronto to Holguín, winter service visible in schedule tools with operations beginning as early as November 2, then building frequency through November. Air Canada is also publishing fares for Holguín to Toronto and Montreal in mid-November.

For Toronto-Holguín specifically, independent schedule aggregators indicate WestJet and Air Transat operating several weekly flights in November, with Air Canada present on selected dates and increasing through the month. Exact counts vary by week and are still being loaded or adjusted as recovery stabilizes.

Santiago de Cuba, Antonio Maceo International (SCU):

Domestic links to Havana are restarting on a limited basis for the winter season, shown at roughly four weekly frequencies on some schedule references, aligning with the carrier's published national timetable framework. Expect variability as aircraft rotate and infrastructure work continues.

Pre-storm vs current frequencies

Before Melissa, Holguín's winter plan relied on a dense Canadian leisure program, with multiple weekly rotations from Toronto and Montreal by WestJet, Air Transat, and Air Canada. As of the second week of November, those flows are returning in steps: initial flights restarted November 5, daily or near-daily patterns are reappearing on specific city pairs later in the month, and some secondary Canadian points will trail by a week or two. That staged ramp is why weekly counts appear inconsistent across schedule tools right now.

Santiago de Cuba's pre-storm international options were already thinner than Holguín's and, in the near term, will lean on domestic connectivity to Havana while repairs progress. Travelers planning itineraries that previously used direct international arrivals to Santiago should consider Holguín as the first-back gateway for the region until more capacity stabilizes.

Analysis

For November travel, treat eastern Cuba as a rolling restoration rather than a flip-of-the-switch return. The practical implications are threefold. First, equipment swaps, for example 737 to A321 or vice versa, are likely as carriers balance fleet availability against airport handling constraints. Second, published frequencies may change within the week as airports clear more stands, power redundancy improves, and ground services normalize. Third, domestic legs that feed Santiago can be retimed as crews and aircraft rotate across a recovering network.

Background

After a major Caribbean cyclone, restoration typically proceeds in layers: power and comms stabilization, runway and lighting checks, terminal cleaning and water ingress fixes, then ground-handling capacity and air navigation services validations. Holguín cleared those layers quickly and became the primary re-entry point for leisure flights to the east. Santiago, with heavier damage and broader municipal recovery underway, reopened more gradually, hence its thinner near-term schedule.

Final thoughts

Eastern Cuba airports are back, but schedules remain uneven. If you are booking Holguín or Santiago de Cuba in November, verify flight numbers and aircraft within 24 to 48 hours of departure, and leave buffers for connections while the region's recovery continues.