Palma Soriano, CU 🇨🇺 Closed Airport
CU-0089
-
455 ft
CU-13
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Loading...GPS Code: Not available
Local Code: Not available
Location: 20.239791° N, -76.010606° E
Continent: NA
Type: Closed Airport
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The exact closure date is not officially documented. However, based on analysis of historical satellite imagery showing significant deterioration and lack of activity, the airport was likely closed in the 1990s or possibly earlier.
The closure was almost certainly due to economic reasons and the consolidation of air services. As Cuba's transportation network evolved, traffic was centralized at the larger and better-equipped Antonio Maceo International Airport (IATA: SCU, ICAO: MUCU) in Santiago de Cuba, making small, local airfields like Palma Soriano redundant and economically unviable to maintain.
The site is completely decommissioned and no longer functions as an airport. Satellite imagery shows the faint outline of the former north-south runway, which is now heavily deteriorated, overgrown, and bisected by a dirt road. The land is primarily used for agriculture. A solar farm, the 'Parque Solar Fotovoltaico Palma Soriano', has been built on the land immediately southeast of the former runway, taking advantage of the flat, cleared terrain.
Palma Soriano Airport was a small, regional airfield. Its primary function was to support the local agricultural economy, specifically for crop-dusting aircraft (known in Cuba as 'fumigaciĂłn') serving the surrounding sugar cane and other plantations. It would have also handled general aviation, light transport, and potentially limited, non-scheduled domestic flights with small aircraft. It was never a major commercial passenger or military airport.
There are no known plans or prospects for reopening the airport. The land has been permanently repurposed for agriculture and renewable energy generation. The runway is in a state of irreversible decay, and the proximity of the major international airport in Santiago de Cuba negates any strategic or economic need for its reactivation.