Turkish Airlines is planning to resume service to Cuba during the northern winter 2026/27 season, scheduling three weekly nonstop Istanbul β Havana flights, according to schedule data published by AeroRoutes on 18 August 2026.
The Boeing 787-9 is listed to operate the route from 25 October 2026 at the earliest, although the filing carries the usual caveat that further changes remain highly possible this far ahead of the season. The published timetable focuses on the period from 8 November 2026 to 5 March 2027.
The schedule
As filed, the rotation runs three times a week on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays:
- TK221 departs Istanbul at 15:30 and arrives in Havana at 20:35.
- TK222 departs Havana at 22:20 and arrives back in Istanbul at 18:00 the following day.
The service is scheduled as a terminator β in other words, Havana is the end of the line rather than an intermediate stop on a longer routing. That is a meaningful detail for a market like Cuba, where long-haul services have historically been operated with an onward tag to a second Latin American or Caribbean city to help fill the aircraft in both directions. Running Havana as a standalone destination puts the commercial weight of the route entirely on Istanbul β Havana traffic and on connecting demand feeding through the airlineβs hub.
Why the 787-9
The Boeing 787-9 is a twin-engine widebody built for exactly this kind of mission: a long, relatively thin route where the operating economics of a smaller widebody matter more than outright seat count. Its composite airframe and lower trip fuel burn make it a common choice for airlines re-entering markets where demand is uncertain and where a larger four-engine or high-capacity twin would be difficult to fill three times a week.
Istanbul β Havana is a long sector by any measure, and the westbound and eastbound block times in the filing β a little over 12 hours outbound and around 12 hours 40 minutes on the return β reflect that. The late-evening departure from Havana is a familiar structure for hub carriers serving the Caribbean, arriving back in Istanbul in the early evening for onward connections.
A route added back to the winter map
For Turkish Airlines, the plan restores a destination to a network that is already among the largest in the world by country count, and it does so in the winter season when leisure demand to the Caribbean is at its strongest from the northern hemisphere. For Havana, a three-weekly widebody link to a major intercontinental hub reopens one-stop access to a wide range of European, Middle Eastern and Asian markets.
As always with schedule filings this far in advance, the 25 October 2026 start date should be treated as the earliest possible rather than a firm launch, and both the timings and the aircraft assignment may change before the season begins.
Sources: AeroRoutes. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. By Elena Vargas.
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