Cuba travel suspended due to sanctions
Sunwing and WestJet Suspend All Cuba Vacations Indefinitely, Citing Fuel Crisis and U.S. Sanctions.
Sunwing Vacations Group says it will indefinitely suspend all trips to Cuba due to worsening operating conditions tied to the island’s acute fuel shortage, extending an April service halt that had previously been scheduled to run through October. The shutdown covers Sunwing Vacations, WestJet Vacations, and WestJet Vacations Québec, with the company saying travelers with existing bookings will be contacted directly and offered either rebooking to another destination or a full refund. The decision comes as airlines continue to cut Cuba service, including Air Transat pausing flights and Air Canada suspending service earlier this year amid aviation-fuel constraints linked to U.S. sanctions. Several reports connect the move to intensifying U.S. pressure on Cuba’s tourism sector, including looming deadlines tied to the GAESA military-linked conglomerate and broader financial and energy disruptions affecting Cuba’s aviation and payment systems. Overall, the suspension underscores how sanctions-driven energy and economic strain are deepening the tourism crisis for communities and workers that depend on the sector.
Key Points
Sunwing’s earlier April pause had a specific end date: it halted Cuba trips “from June 20 through to Oct. 9,” before expanding that decision into an open-ended shutdown.
In April, Sunwing had outlined a staged return plan for October (before this week’s indefinite suspension): resuming Varadero and Cayo Coco on “October 10,” and adding other destinations on “October 25.”
U.S. sanctions escalated in parallel with the travel halt: one report says Washington imposed sanctions on “Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, his wife and three other individuals,” prompting “immediate condemnation from Havana.”
The tourism fallout linked to GAESA was described as already materializing through major hotel withdrawals, including reports that Blue Diamond Resorts left “62 hotels and over 12,900 rooms,” Meliá stopped operations in “15 establishments,” and Iberostar halted “12 hotels” as of “June 1.”
Beyond fuel, the Central Bank of Cuba reported a payments disruption: card payments with “Visa and Mastercard” would be suspended after the “breakup of a foreign bank with Fincimex,” described as GAESA’s financial arm.
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