Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Jardines del Rey Airport (MUCC/CCC) is the resort gateway to Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo, sitting on the eastern end of Cayo Coco island off Cuba's north coast in Ciego de Ávila Province. Opened in December 2002 to replace an older domestic strip, it is jointly operated by the Cuban ECASA and Spanish Aena, making it unique among Cuban airports, and offers a single long instrument-equipped runway used by international charter and scheduled traffic serving the archipelago's beach resorts.
Jardines del Rey Airport lies on Cayo Coco, part of the Jardines del Rey archipelago off Cuba's north-central coast in Ciego de Ávila Province. It was purpose-built to serve the tourist resorts of Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo, replacing the need for visitors to transit via the mainland, and is jointly run by the Cuban aviation authority ECASA and the Spanish operator Aena, an unusual arrangement that makes it the only foreign-managed airport in Cuba. For a simulator pilot, it offers a long single-runway ILS approach over a low-lying tropical cay, with a mix of charter and scheduled airline traffic and a distinctive island setting.
The airport is situated on the eastern end of Cayo Coco island, part of the Jardines del Rey archipelago, within Ciego de Ávila Province on Cuba's northern coast. It is much closer to the Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo resorts than the older Máximo Gómez Airport on the mainland, which lies roughly 70 kilometres to the south and previously served the island before a road causeway and later this airport connected it directly. A causeway links Cayo Coco, and the airport, to the Cuban mainland.
The airport has one physical runway, 08/26, measuring 9,845 feet in length with a hard, lit surface. Runway 08 is equipped with an instrument landing system, while runway 26 is available for landing without an ILS.
Traffic is worked on APP/TWR frequency 118.8 MHz, with an air-to-ground RDO/TWR frequency of 340.7 MHz also listed for the field. Runway 08 is equipped with an instrument landing system, providing a precision approach into the airport.
The airport sits on the eastern tip of Cayo Coco, with the island's causeway to the Cuban mainland a useful landmark when approaching from the south, and the neighbouring cay of Cayo Guillermo lying to the southwest along the same archipelago.
Jardines del Rey Airport was built as part of a Cuban government push, beginning in the early 1990s, to develop tourism on Cayo Coco, where visitors had previously flown into Máximo Gómez Airport on the mainland before enduring a lengthy bus transfer. Construction of the new airport began in January 2000 after the government announced plans the previous year, with Spanish airports company Aena signing a contract to build and jointly operate the field alongside the Cuban company ECASA, making it the first Cuban airport managed in part by a foreign entity. The runway, taxiways, apron and control tower were completed in an initial phase in early 2002, and the airport was officially inaugurated on 26 December 2002 once a larger terminal was finished. The older Cayo Coco Airport, situated about 10 kilometres to the west in a more environmentally sensitive area, was subsequently demolished; part of its former runway was absorbed into the road linking Cayo Coco with Cayo Guillermo, and some of its markings and taxiways remain visible today. The airport suffered major damage during Hurricane Irma in September 2017, prompting a significant rebuild of the terminal using concrete construction intended to better withstand future storms; it reopened in early November 2017 in time for the winter tourist season. Runway improvements were carried out from the autumn of 2022, using thousands of tonnes of asphalt to widen and strengthen the 3,000-metre runway to accommodate larger aircraft.
Jardines del Rey remains primarily a tourist gateway, handling around fifty flights a week and serving mainly scheduled and charter services from Canada and other international points into the Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo resort areas, as well as domestic flights. The single runway is equipped with an instrument landing system on runway 08, supporting operations in a range of weather conditions typical of the region.