Cubana de Aviación S.A is Cuba's largest airline and flag carrier, it has also a Cargo version named a Cubana de Aviación Cargo S.A.Cubana de Aviación was created on October 8 1929, operating Sikorsky S-38. After the Cuban Revolution, the airline started operating Soviet aircraft like the An-24, Il 18, Il 62m, and Tu-154B2.
Following the end of the Cold War, the airline began operating Fokker F27 ATR 42-300, ATR 72-500, Airbus A320-200, Boeing 737-500, Boeing 737-300, Boeing 737-200 (both aircraft were wet leased from Global Air), Tu-204-100, Il-96-300 and An-148.
History Establishment Cubana was established on 8 October 1929 as Compañía Nacional Cubana de Aviación Curtiss, indicating its association with the Curtiss aircraft manufacturing company. It was one of the earliest airlines to emerge in Latin America. Cubana's predecessors were the Compañía Aérea de Cuba, founded in 1919, and the Compañía Aérea Cubana, founded in 1920 (both airlines flew out of Havana's Columbia Airport, which started operations in 1919). Those companies were dissolved soon after they started, however, due to the difficult economic conditions affecting Cuba (and many other nations) in the aftermath of World War I.
Other air transport companies in Cuba at the time of Cubana's founding were Servicio Cubano de Aviación, Líneas Aéreas de Cuba, and Compañía Nacional Cubana de Transporte Aéreo. All of these companies existed only for short periods of time, and had limited finances. They mostly operated occasional flights that carried packages for urgent delivery, or individuals who sought air travel for private business trips or recreational purposes. They were all greatly affected by the onset of the Great Depression in 1929 and the early 1930s, and the subsequent drop in air traffic.
Cubana de Aviación Curtiss started services in 1930 with Curtiss Robin aircraft, followed by Sikorsky S-38 amphibians and Ford Trimotors. Amphibious service linked the coastal mining areas in the eastern part of Cuba, while the land-based Curtiss Robins and Ford Trimotors served the major provincial cities. The Curtiss Aviation School, owned by the Curtiss airplane manufacturing company, had trained Cuban pilots starting in the 1910s, thus creating the expertise necessary for the emergence of Cubana. Among the early Cuban aviation aces was Agustín Parlá Orduña, a 1912 graduate of the Curtiss School, who had headed the Compañía Aérea de Cuba in 1919.
Early years Visits to Cuba by famous aviators, and news about their exploits, favored Cubana's start-up. They generated interest in aviation and its commercial possibilities in Cuba, at a time when civil aviation was mostly a recreational activity. Among them were the Spanish-Cuban aviator Domingo Rosillo, who completed the first flight across the Strait of Florida (Key West to Havana) in 1913, French aviator Charles Nungesser in 1924, and the American Charles Lindbergh in his "Spirit of St. Louis" airplane in 1928. After Cubana's founding, the Spanish aviators Mariano Barberán and Joaquín Collar completed the first transatlantic flight from Spain to Cuba in 1933, followed in 1936 by the first Cuba-to-Spain (Havana-Seville) flight by Cuban aviator Antonio Menéndez Peláez in an open cockpit, single-engine airplane. These and other feats promoted interest in long-distance flight.
Pan American Airways (then known as Pan American Airways System or PAA) acquired Cubana in 1932, and the word Curtiss was deleted from the airline's name. Financial difficulties in the U.S.-based Curtiss aircraft manufacturing company, due to the deepening economic depression, partly motivated the sale. Cubana therefore became a subsidiary of Pan American Airways. At that time, Pan American had started to assemble a Latin American and Caribbean network, linking together air services in various nations with its own international routes in the Americas and the Caribbean. Pan American's own first-ever international scheduled service had started from Florida to Cuba in the 1920s (Key West-Havana). Acquiring Cubana therefore made sense to PAA's management as it expanded operations beyond Cuba toward the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Cuba's populist revolution of 1933 had little effect on Cubana and on Pan American's ownership of the airline. Despite the nationalist character of the new government which seized power from 1933 until 1940, Pan American's investment in Cubana was safeguarded. The economic depression of the 1930s did affect Cuba, but its impact on Cubana was not substantial. At the time, much of Cubana's revenue was derived from carrying mail for Cuba's postal service. Airline passenger traffic was very limited, due to the small capacity of aircraft in those times. Also, people who chose to travel by air were mostly a select elite. Air travellers within Cuba in the 1930s were mostly wealthy business people, well-paid professionals, or well-to-do individuals who could afford the relatively high fares.
Twin-engine Lockheed Model 10 Electras joined Cubana's fleet in 1934, allowing the airline to extend its routes within Cuba. These aircraft, which were among the most advanced in their time, were part of Pan American's investment in Cubana. The Lockheed Electras allowed Cubana to expand its land-based operations, serving cities which previously had no access to scheduled airline service. The expansion of Cubana's routes was accompanied by the creation of Cuba's Civil Aviation School in 1936, headed by Cuban aviation ace Ramiro Leonard. The school trained many aviators who would join Cubana's operations. By 1940, Cubana's fleet had a total of 12 aircraft, all of which were used in the airline's growing domestic network.
The Lockheed Electras were followed by the Douglas DC-3 in 1944 and the Curtiss C-46 in 1946. As a subsidiary of Pan American Airways, Cubana's technical operations, aircraft livery, crews' uniforms and even the airline's logo closely followed those of Pan American (the PAA-style logo was retained until 1957). Cubana's route system within Cuba fed passengers to Pan American's international flights, providing connections through Havana. This relationship was similar to that of other Pan American Airways subsidiaries in Latin America, such as Mexicana de Aviación and Panair do Brasil.
In 1944 the name of the airline was changed to Compañía Cubana de Aviación S.A. A majority share in the airline was then sold to Cuban investors in that year, with Pan American Airways retaining a 42% stake. Pan American had been expanding rapidly, acquiring or setting up subsidiaries throughout Latin America (and re-establishing its Pacific and North Atlantic services as the end of World War II approached), and needed to raise capital. This change in majority ownership marked Cubana's ascendance as a Cuban enterprise, and made the airline a source of national pride. From 1944, Cubana would remain a private enterprise supported primarily by domestic capital.
In 1944, the first International Conference on Civil Aviation was convened, which later would lead to the creation of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Cuba was a participant in this conference and a founding member of ICAO, helping set the framework for international agreements that would rule civil aviation during the second half of the 20th century. In April 1945, the conference that created the International Air Transport Association (IATA) was held in Havana. Cubana became a founding member of IATA, and participated in the creation of that organization through its involvement with the Havana conference and the resulting accords. Both conferences and the organizations they spawned helped establish Cubana as an internationally recognized airline company.
During its first 16 years Cubana's scheduled services were exclusively domestic. Its route system used Havana as its main hub, with frequent flights to the nation's major provincial cities. Cubana's founding in 1929 had coincided with the opening of Havana's José Martí International Airport, allowing the airline to establish a permanent operational base there. Located 18 km. from central Havana, near the town of Rancho Boyeros, the new airport provided ample space for expansion (compared to Havana's old Columbia Airport, which was hemmed by the city's rapid growth). During the 1930s, Cubana expanded its services to serve most every major city in Cuba. Then, the Second World War stymied Cubana's expansion, due to limited supplies of fuel and aircraft. By the end of the War, however, Cubana was ready to launch its first international route.
International expansion In May 1945 Cubana started its first scheduled international flights, from Havana to Miami using Douglas DC-3 aircraft. Cubana was the first Latin American airline to establish scheduled passenger services to Miami. Flights on this route carried mostly business people and tourists, and they helped start tourism travel as an important market for commercial aviation. The Miami route, because of its economic and political significance, would later prove to be an important part of Cubana's history.
In April 1948 a transatlantic route was started between Havana and Madrid (via Bermuda, the Azores and Lisbon) using Douglas DC-4 aircraft. The DC-4 was Cubana's first four-engine aircraft, and it required five cockpit crew members to operate (captain, first officer, flight engineer, navigator and radio operator). The DC-4 that started the transatlantic route had a pressurized cabin and was christened "Estrella de Cuba" (CU-T188). A second DC-4 was christened "Estrella de Oriente" (CU-T397) and replaced the DC-3s on Cubana's Miami route. The Madrid route was extended to Rome in 1950 (the Madrid-Rome segment was later discontinued). The new route to Europe made Cubana one of the earliest Latin American carriers to establish scheduled transatlantic service.The first Latin American carrier to establish scheduled transatlantic service was Aerovías Cuba Internacional, starting 24 November 1946 with a DC-4 aircraft, "Ruta de Colón" (registered as N44567). This airline, however, ceased operations soon after, due to financial difficulties and a fatal accident on the Havana-Madrid route (involving the crash of the DC-4 "Ruta de Colón" in Spain, on 6 February 1947). Cuba Aéreo, Breve Historia de la Aviación Cubana, http://www.cubaaereo.com/pilot.asp?pg=historia . At the time, most European airlines did not have any transatlantic routes, and Cubana became the only carrier offering direct service from continental Europe to the Caribbean. Later, in the early 1950s, the DC-4s were replaced by Lockheed Constellations (L-049), the main type of aircraft used at the time for long-distance commercial air travel.The Lockheed Constellations (L-049) were provided by Pan American Airways after the loss of two of Cubana's DC-4s. On 25 April 1951 the "Estrella de Cuba" collided with a U.S. Navy aircraft in mid-air, on a flight from Miami to Havana, after Key West air traffic controllers provided erroneous instructions to the Navy plane; the "Estrella de Oriente" crashed shortly after takeoff from Bermuda on 6 December 1952, on a Madrid-Havana flight, due to apparent engine failure. George Gómez Fariñas, "Una tragedia cubana, 40 años después", El Nuevo Herald (December 15, 1992), p. 1C; Cuba Aéreo, Breve Historia de la Aviación Cubana, http://www.cubaaereo.com/pilot.asp?pg=historia .