, c. 1940
Foundation and early years The current
José Martí Airport in 1930 replaced the
Columbia Airfield, which was the first airport to serve Havana. The original name of the airport,
Rancho Boyeros, meaning the "(Bull) Drover Ranch", was in reference to the name of the plains where the airport was being built. It was known as the
Rancho Boyeros because in
colonial times a local family had built a thatched hut and provided meals and an inn to the weary
drovers that brought agricultural products to the capital from
Batabanó and
Vuelta Abajo. To give a progressive environment to the airport, the old ranch homes were transformed into a small town that would serve as an industrial, livestock, agriculture and commercial centre, rising comfortable homes, an industrial technical school, a paint factory and other facilities. The town today is known as the Boyeros Municipality. The construction of José Martí Airport, formerly
Rancho Boyeros Airport, was authorized in March 1929 by General Order No. 223. On 24 February 1930, the airport opened, replacing the former
Ciudad Libertad Airport. On 30 October of the same year, the first flight by
Cubana de Aviación (formerly
Compañía Nacional Cubana de Aviación Curtiss) from Havana to
Santiago de Cuba carried the mail on a
Ford Trimotor with stops in
Santa Clara,
Morón and
Camagüey. Flights to
Madrid started in 1936 with a
Lockheed Sirius named
4 September, commanded by Capt. Antonio Menéndez Pélaez. She was flown via
Venezuela,
Natal, Brazil, and
Dakar, Senegal. By January 1943 the airport had its first
control tower, the first in the country. vIn 1945, the
International Air Transport Association (IATA) was formed in Havana. Cubana's first international flight out of the airport was a
Douglas DC-3 to Miami on 15 May of the same year. The first transatlantic flight from any Latin American country to Europe took place in 1946 from Havana to Madrid on a
Douglas DC-4, operated by Aerovias Cubanas Internacionales (Cunnair), founded by Cuban pioneer Reinaldo Ramirez Rosell. On 2 April 1950 the airport received a second route to Europe with flights to
Rome on a
Cubana de Aviación DC-4. The first night flight landed at the airport from Santiago de Cuba with a
Douglas DC-3 in 1951. The first route to
Mexico City was inaugurated in 1953 by Cubana, utilizing a
Lockheed Constellation.
Embargoes since the 1960s In 1961,
diplomatic relations with the United States deteriorated substantially and with the
United States embargo against Cuba, airlines from the United States were not permitted to operate regular scheduled flights to the airport. That year, two days prior to the failed
Bay of Pigs Invasion organized by the CIA with the participation of Cuban exiles, Douglas A-26 Invader aircraft from Brigade 2506 bombarded José Martí Airport and
Antonio Maceo Airport in Santiago de Cuba. Because of Cuba's
relationship with the
Soviet Union, the airport during the 1970s and 1980s enjoyed the presence of many
Eastern Bloc airline companies, such as Aeroflot,
Czechoslovak Airlines,
Interflug, and
LOT Polish Airlines. In 1977 an Aeroflot
Ilyushin Il-62 operating a scheduled flight from Moscow to Havana via Frankfurt and Lisbon crashed after takeoff from Lisbon, killing 68 of the 70 on board and one person on the ground. In 1988, Terminal 2 was constructed in anticipation of future charter flights to the United States. In the 1990s the special charter flights were approved by the US government, to operate from Miami for Cuban citizens living in the United States that have close relatives in Cuba. Today, various airlines operate non-stop scheduled charter service between Havana and Miami. On 31 December 1997 a
Concorde landed in Cuba for the first time, landing at José Martí Airport. The London-Paris-Barbados-Havana
Air France flight was received at the airport by Fidel Castro, who boarded the aircraft and greeted the crew and passengers. On 26 April the following year, the new International Terminal 3 was inaugurated by Canada's Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Cuba's President Fidel Castro.
Development in the 2000s In 2002
Air Freight Logistics Enterprise (ELCA S.A.) opened José Martí's first freight terminal known as the
Aerovaradero Freight Terminal. The terminal has a capacity, of space in two refrigeration and freezing chambers, with humidity and gas controls. In 2007, three young recruits who deserted from the Cuban Army tried to hijack a commercial passenger aircraft aiming to defect to the United States. At Terminal 1, the would-be hijackers killed one of the hostages, a lieutenant colonel. Terminal 2 was remodeled and expanded in 2010. Special charter service to the United States were allowed from the 1990s, but were required to be operated by travel companies licensed by the U.S. government, largely from Florida. In March 2015,
Sun Country Airlines started operating regularly scheduled charter flights from
New York during the
Cuban Thaw. Delta resumed its flights to New Orleans in March 2015, after not flying the route for over 50 years. Regularly scheduled commercial service to and from the United States began again in the fall of 2016, with such airlines as American, Delta, JetBlue and, after January 2017, Alaska, flying to Havana. However, several airlines had dropped, if not cut back, flights to Cuba by late 2017 due in part to
President Trump's decision to reimpose stricter travel regulations, therefore partially ending the Cuban Thaw. Several other reasons that the airlines ended the flights were because of weaker-than-expected demand and a paucity of tourist infrastructure. In February 2016, a VIP room at the airport was used as the location for the
historic meeting of Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill. In March 2020, Cuba announced that it was closing its borders because of the
COVID-19 pandemic. Only humanitarian flights were then permitted. On 10 November 2020, it was announced that the airport would re-open to commercial flights on 15 November. Some airlines started operations again, but not all those which had flown previously. In January 2021, the Cuban authorities placed restrictions on the number of flights from a number of countries, and halted flights from a few. Separately, Canadian airlines stopped flying to Caribbean destinations, including Cuba. ==Terminals==