With Jet Fuel Scarce, Canada and Russia Cancel Flights

The Cuban government told airlines on Monday the country is running so low on jet fuel that it has to stop refueling planes from international carriers.

Cuba’s civil aviation authority says airports will remain operational, but airlines cannot count on being able to refuel. The official aviation notice is valid for a month.

The jet fuel shortage is forcing airlines operating long-haul routes to refuel in nearby third countries or even cancel flights.

Canadian airlines Air Canada, WestJet Group and Air Transat have since announced that flights to Cuba will be suspended. Canada is by far the island’s leading source of tourists.

After Canada, Russia sends the second most tourists to Cuba. Russian airlines Rossiya and Nordwind also announced they will halt flights, after evacuating Russian tourists from the island.

The decline in tourism will be another major economic blow.

“When Canadian airlines cancel flights because Cuba has been deliberately deprived of fuel, they become collateral damage in Trump’s economic war,” Isaac Saney, a Cuba and Black Studies historian at Dalhousie University, wrote in a Facebook post. “This is an immediate and direct assault on Canadian economic sovereignty and independence. No foreign power has the right to dictate where Canadian companies may fly, who Canadians may visit, or with whom Canada may trade.”