José Martí international Airport (HAV) — Local services in Boyeros

Arriving via a flight: It takes awhile to get through customs, and then security. A guard saw us and called for "familia" to come through before others (not sure if it was because we were foreign or because we had a little one, but I appreciated it). Took forever for our two bags to arrive. It is crowded and chaotic, and the smell of smoke is constantly there in the building. Baggage claim, security, and customs are all one place in the terminal we were at (2). There was also a desk to stop and turn in your medical paperwork, but we somehow passed it and no one stopped us. I went back and submitted the form before we left just in case. Upon exit, there are lots of locals packed around the gate. Luckily, our driver showed me where to get the money exchanged (I had to go back inside the airport, to the check in area to do so). We did not see any food or ETECSA (WiFi) when we arrived. Best to book a driver in advance so you do not have to deal with the crowd or try to negotiate pricing (or have to burn cash- we did it all online before leaving home). Departure on a flight: Upon driving up to the terminal, we saw a food kiosk and the WiFi kiosk at the far end of the terminal. No wonder we didn't see it when we arrived. Check in was easy, but they only check in the flights one at a time, it seemed. They were not accepting people on the later flight yet, just the earlier flight. We were not allowed (by the vendor) to buy a bag of coffee because she said security wouldn't let us bring it through. Easy to get back through customs and security. On the other side are some shops for souvenirs (not much though), and duty-free alcohol and cigars. The food was sad, and despite putting napkins with our sandwiches, we were not allowed to have more napkins even though the little one knocked a drink over. We also couldn't get napkins from the bathroom, as toilet paper was all that was there, and they wanted to charge for hand towels (and there is no seat on any of the toilets there, which is customary in many public places). Not a great way to start or...

The airport is the worst airport I ever saw in my entire life. I don't want to complain about the building or the service there too much. The big problem is, that the airport employees that load and unload the luggage are very criminal. I arrived with Latam flight LA2410 from Lima to Havana on 19.12.23. When i checked my luggages later on, I realised that my luggages had been opened. Everything inside was a mess and all medicine packages had been opened and I missed my emergency travel phone as well as my pair of sunglasses and my firetv stick. Well not such a high value of stolen things, but the idea of people searching everything and even unboxing my souvenir gifts is really disgusting. Also I found a packages of handkerchiefs inside my luggage that didn't belong to me. So there must have been several bags opened and things stolen at the same time and things mixed up between the bags when putting the uninteresting things back in. But the best thing is yet to come. On 23.12.23 I took my flight back to Madrid with Iberia IB6620. This time I locked my luggage with a saftey number lock. Also I thought that the chances of getting something stolen twice can't be so high. But I guess wrong. When i picked up my luggages from the belt I already saw that the locks had been opened. And again everything inside my luggage was a mess again and all my medicine packages had been opened again. This time I only missed one package of cigars that I bought in Havana. Again not such a dramatic lost. But really come on. I only was there two times in my life there at this airport. And two out of two times I got something stolen. That worse experience really downgraded my whole vacations there in Cuba. Authorities really should check and control all the employees working in the logistics there and try to find the guilty ones. Otherwise every second passenger will be victim to crime...

for some reasons there are 2 locations for this airport in Google maps ,this airport where my WORST experience in me life ,(comparing 70 airports ive been in 40+countries) there are lots of reasons So 1 . I had a permit from cuban civil aviation authority to bring my drone in cuba (this was the only permit you need to make it with you .)and they didnt accepted it in customs ,so they took it from me ,they said you will take it when you leave the country, they took my second power bank , my portable wifi router , my second phone , in my second electronic cigar ,without explaining me the reason .and waiting for this 2hours .ALMOST ALL OF THEM DIDNT KNOW ENGLISH AND THEY WHERE ALL RUDE ,making people think that they where responsible for the busy airport without having enough staff to control it . when I returned to take my thinks back I was waiting 2 hours again to take them back and they made me pay 5euros in cuban pesos for each piece , they didn inform me before ,so I didn have cash , and all of my cards didn't work there ,5 different cards , luckily a stranger payed for this .all the staff there was really rude ,they have network problems and they make the tourists suffer,

2 .everything in the airport was expensive and low quality, I couldn't find something to eat .

we where waiting 1 hour in the line in the passport control they asked as where is our hotel ,and we could answer because THE WIFI DIDNT WORK so we can show him ,and he said ok we wait ,we waited there 30minutes for no reason

4 almost lost my return flight because they check in didnt work online so the desk opened 3 hourse before +2 hours waiting in customs

5 be aware of the taxi drivers dont pay more than 20 euro for havana transfer

LAST THINK I hope this government helps his cityzens because the government is responsible to what is...