Departure
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MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
José Martí International Airport is Cuba's principal international gateway, sited in the municipality of Boyeros some 20 kilometres southwest of central Havana. It is a hub for Cubana de Aviación and Aerogaviota and offers a single long paved runway with a full instrument approach, making it a straightforward if operationally busy destination for a simulated international arrival into Cuba.
José Martí International Airport serves Havana as Cuba's main international airport and is operated by the state enterprise Empresa Cubana de Aeropuertos y Servicios Aeronáuticos (ECASA). It is a hub for Cubana de Aviación and Aerogaviota, and was formerly a major Latin American hub for Soviet, later Russian, Aeroflot services. The field is named after the Cuban patriot and poet José Martí and was long known by its original name, Rancho Boyeros Airport. For a simulator pilot it offers an interesting mix of Cold War history, a long single runway suited to heavy international types, and the atmosphere of one of the Caribbean's busier air hubs.
The airport lies in the municipality of Boyeros, about 20 kilometres southwest of the centre of Havana. It sits within controlled airspace served by Havana Approach on 119.35 MHz, with clearance delivery and ground handled on 121.9 MHz and Marti Tower on 118.1 MHz. As Cuba's principal international aerodrome it is the focus of the surrounding Havana terminal airspace, and pilots should expect to work with approach control well before reaching the field.
The airport has a single physical runway, 06/24, a hard-surfaced strip roughly 13,150 to 13,170 feet long depending on threshold, and lit for night operations. An ILS is available for runway 06, giving a precision approach into Havana from the northeast.
Air-to-ground and area frequencies include Boyeros Radio on 126.9 MHz (national A/G) and 288.7 MHz (international A/G), with additional A/G channels on 1132.1 MHz and 1329.7 MHz. Havana Approach operates on 119.35 MHz, ATIS is broadcast on 132.5 MHz, clearance delivery and ground share 121.9 MHz, and the tower callsign is Marti Tower on 118.1 MHz. An ILS serves runway 06.
As a controlled international airport, arrivals and departures are managed by Havana Approach and Marti Tower rather than by informal circuit joining; pilots should expect standard IFR-style handling and sequencing typical of a major hub, working through clearance delivery, ground, tower and approach in turn.
The airport's terminal layout gives useful orientation cues from the air: the domestic terminal, Terminal 1, sits at the west end of runway 06, while the US-charter Terminal 2 and the main international Terminal 3 lie on the north side of the airfield near runway 24. Terminal 5, used for Caribbean and regional services, is at the southeast corner of the field. These groupings can help a pilot confirm position relative to the runway during a visual approach.
The airport opened on 24 February 1930 under the name Rancho Boyeros, replacing an earlier Havana airfield, with construction authorised in March 1929. Cubana de Aviación's first flight, carrying mail from Havana to Santiago de Cuba, departed on 30 October 1930, and the airline's first international service, to Miami, followed on 15 May 1945. In 1946 a Cubana-operated Douglas DC-4 flew the first transatlantic flight from a Latin American country to Europe, from Havana to Madrid, and the airport gained its first control tower in January 1943. Following the deterioration of US-Cuban relations after 1961, US airlines were barred from scheduled service, and two days before the Bay of Pigs invasion Douglas A-26 Invader aircraft bombed the airport. During the 1970s and 1980s the field hosted numerous Eastern Bloc carriers including Aeroflot, Czechoslovak Airlines, Interflug and LOT Polish Airlines, reflecting Cuba's ties to the Soviet Union. Terminal 2 was built in 1988 in anticipation of US charter traffic, and on 31 December 1997 a Concorde landed at the airport, greeted by Fidel Castro. The new Terminal 3 was inaugurated on 26 April 1998 by Castro and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.
José Martí International Airport remains Cuba's busiest airport, connecting Havana with destinations across the Caribbean, North, Central and South America, and Europe. Private Cuban citizens are not permitted to own aircraft, and only government-owned or foreign-registered aircraft may use the facility, underlining its role as a state-operated international gateway rather than a general aviation field. The airport has four passenger terminals and a separate freight terminal, handling both scheduled and charter traffic for airlines including Cubana de Aviación, Aerogaviota and Copa Airlines.