Flights Over Cuba - IFR Only

Cuba allows civil traffic through its airspace via three corridors, the western Giron Corridor, the central Maya Corridor and the eastern Nuevas Corridor. The Cuban government requires pilots to have overflight permits on file in order to use these corridors. When you register with the Cayman Caravan, we will obtain your permits, both coming and going.

The Cuba overflight permits are good for an entire Zulu day.

We have a well-established fax and phone link with Cuban ATC, so if you are delayed, we can easily change your permit. The same applies for the return trip.

Even though we have this flexibility, we ask that you try to adhere to your originally scheduled Caravan departure day and time. If we have to make changes, we will. But all things considered, it's best to stick to the original plan to avoid any foul ups.

The route we fly (G448) takes you from Key West, direct to TADPO, the handoff point to Havana Center. From TADPO, you'll fly south on G448 to Varder VOR, through the Giron Corridor, thence to Cayo Largo Del Sur (a VOR) then to ATUVI, the handoff point to Grand Cayman approach.

This route passes just east of Havana, over Cuba's Matanzas Province. Points of interest include Varadero, a major airport and resort, the Bay of Pigs, just east of the route and Cayo Largo Del Sur, a popular resort for western tourists. Giron, by the way, is the Cuban name for the Bay of Pigs beach, over which the corridor used to pass.

Cuban IFR procedures are straightforward; the controllers are friendly and speak excellent English. The Cubans have a very sophisticated radar and data processing system. In some ways, it's more sophisticated than the U.S. system.

Radio communications are not quite as crisp as in the U.S., which is to say there may be times when you'll hear Havana but they won't hear you and vice versa. The Cubans are used to it and you shouldn't worry much about it.

There are a couple of twists here: Altitudes in Cuban airspace are all flight levels so 12,000 feet is flight level 120 and so on. (Set altimeter to 29.92) Second, we recommend using the phonetic alphabet to describe navigation fixes. This will minimize confusion due to the language barrier and scratchy radios.

As we have in the past, we'll have our own air-to-air communications frequency, Cayman Common is the standard Caribbean air-to-air frequency of 123.45. Feel free to exchange useful flight information (weather, navigation, comm relay, etc.) with other Caravan aircraft on the frequency, using your flight designator as a call sign.