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Southwest Airlines has announced its schedule of non-stop services between Florida and Cuba which will be starting up as soon as next month.
Last month both Delta and American Airlines opened up reservations on their routes to Havana and, a couple of weeks ago, Alaska followed suit (although it will be starting services later than expected). Now its Southwest’s turn to announce details of its new routes and its doing so with an introductory fare of $59 one-way….which is fantastic!
Southwest’s Florida to Cuba Schedules
Ft. Lauderdale – Varadero
From 13 November 2016 Southwest will operate this route 2x/day using its Boeing 737 aircraft.
WN3914 FLL 11:00 – 12:00 VRA (Tue – Sun)
WN3283 FLL 11:40 – 12:40 VRA (Mon)
WN3916 FLL 14:55 – 15:55 VRA (Mon – Wed & Fri – Sun)
WN2709 FLL 17:10 – 18:10 VRA (Thu)
WN3915 VRA 13:00 – 14:05 FLL (Tue – Sun)
WN3284 VRA 13:40 – 14:45 FLL (Mon)
WN3917 VRA 16:55 – 18:00 FLL (Mon – Wed & Fri – Sun)
WN3960 VRA 19:10 – 20:15 FLL (Thu)
Southwest 737-800 Cabin Interior
Ft. Lauderdale – Havana
From 12 December 2016 Southwest will operate this route 2x/day using its Boeing 737-800 aircraft (subject to Cuban government approval which is still pending).
WN3922 FLL 11:55 – 13:00 HAV (Daily)
WN3920 FLL 16:00 – 17:05 HAV (Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sun)
WN3777 FLL 21:10 – 22:15 HAV (Tue, Sat)
WN3921 HAV 08:30 – 09:40 FLL (Daily)
WN3923 HAV 14:00 – 15:10 FLL (Daily)
Tampa – Havana
From 12 December 2016 Southwest will operate this route daily using its Boeing 737 aircraft (subject to Cuban government approval which is still pending).
WN3952 TPA 06:15 – 07:30 HAV (Daily)
WN3953 HAV 18:05 – 19:25 TPA (Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sun)
WN3954 HAV 23:15 – 00:35+1 day TPA (Tue, Sat)
Schedule details for Santa Clara (daily service from Ft. Lauderdale) are expected to be released in the coming weeks.
Fares To Cuba
Southwest is offering a special introductory fare of $59 one-way on non-stop flight to Cuba. Here are the details:
- 14 advance purchase required
- Booking period: today – 11:59pm 20 November (time based on departure city)
- Travel dates: 13 November 2016 – 24 April
The excellent news is that these fares really do exist and there’s great availability. The bad news is that the $59 fares only appear to be available from the US – return flight appear to all be around $90….but that’s still not bad!
Here’s a look at the December fares to Havana from Ft Lauderdale:
And this is what the fares for the return flights look like:
And things look exactly the same from Tampa.
Tampa to Havana in February:
Havana to Tampa in February:
The price appears to include all necessary taxes so the total cost of the flights really is $150:
Bottom Line
I absolutely love that airlines like Southwest fly these routes as it keeps the legacy airlines on their toes.
There’s absolutely no doubt that the likes of American and Delta would happily charge the earth for flights to Cuba if they thought they could get away with it but airlines like Southwest stop them from doing that. It may only be a short flight but, in the context of things, $150 for a round-trip fare to Cuba is excellent value so I’d jump on the fare now if you’d like to visit.
Don’t forget that when you fly with Southwest to Cuba your first and second checked bags fly for free so make sure you include that in your calculations when comparing airfares.
