American Airlines Requests Suspension of Flights between Miami and Santiago de Cuba

AREQUIPA, Peru – U.S. airline American Airlines requested last Friday that the Department of Transportation (DOT) expand the temporary waiver to suspend certain flights between the U.S. and Cuba during the summer 2025 season.

A report from the outlet Airlines Geeks noted that the airline cited “deeper challenges to the recovery of passenger demand” between the two countries as the main reason for requesting these route reductions.

The request specifically focuses on the Miami-Havana and Miami-Santiago de Cuba routes.

In this regard, the Texas-based airline is seeking to modify the existing waiver, which the DOT approved last March, to suspend up to three of its eight daily round-trip flights between Miami and Havana on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, as well as four of its eight daily round-trip flights between Miami and Havana on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

American Airlines also requested to suspend its daily flights between Miami and Santiago de Cuba on all days of the week. If the agency approves the request, the airline would have no presence at the airport in Cuba’s eastern province, leaving the region without direct service from the United States.

The airline had previously requested a waiver to reduce its operations to Camagüey, Holguín, Matanzas/Varadero, and Santa Clara. However, the current request does not seek any changes to those destinations.

The current request, still awaiting a response from the DOT, is “narrowly focused, limited to the remainder of the summer 2025 season,” the airline stated, and would allow it to “better align its capacity and services with market conditions.”

The U.S. company also explained that the waiver would provide operational flexibility to resume services more quickly should market conditions improve.

Despite being one of the most active airlines operating in the Caribbean nation, American Airlines has faced strong criticism in recent years for yielding to the dictates of the Havana regime, which prevents hundreds of Cuban citizens from returning to the island for political reasons.

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