SOVIET CIVIL AIR ROUTE TO CUBA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82R00025R000300150003-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 16, 2006
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: January 28, 1963
• Content Type: MEMO

Approved For Release 2006/11/16: CIA-RDP82R00025R000300150003-4
FIDENT IAL
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
WASHINGTON 25, D.C.
28 January 1963
SUBJECT: Soviet Civil Air Route to Cuba
1. The Soviet civil airline, Aeroflot, inaug-
urated its first regularly scheduled flight from
Moscow to Havana via Murmansk on 7 January 1963.
The flight by a Soviet TU-114 four-engine turboprop
transport opened the first Soviet air route into
the Western hemisphere and is billed by Moscow as
the "world's longest regular nonstop air service."
A roundtrip flight is now scheduled to be flown once
a week rather than twice as announced initially by
the USSR.
2. The new route goes north from Moscow to
Murmansk and from there, after a stop for refuel-
ing, direct to Havana over neutral waters of the
Norwegian and Greenland Seas, the Danish Straits,
the Atlantic Ocean and the Straits of Florida--a
total distance of mare than 6,500 miles. The route
does not pass through the airspace of Western coun-
tries, but the Soviets have requested the use of
navigational and weather aids from Norway, Iceland,
Canada, the UK and the US. The flight from Moscow
to Havana is covered in about 16 hours flying tine;
the return trip from Havana to Moscow is shortened
to about 14 hours because of favorable winds. By
flying nonstop from Murmansk the USSR avoids the
problem of obtaining overflight and landing rights
from Western countries. These rights became in-
creasingly difficult for the Soviets to, obtain after
the Cuban crisis erupted last October.
3. Although frequently alleged to be an unde-
pendable aircraft, the TU-114 probably is fully
capable of servicing the Moscow-Ratans routs. Main-
tenance difficulties, which are co on to this
CONFIDENTIAL
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Approved For Release 2006/11/16: CIA-RDP82R00025R000300150003-4
 Approved For Release 2006/11/16: CIA--RDP82R00025R000300150003-4
transport--the largest commercial aircraft in use,
may present some problems, however, and Moscow has
announced they are assigning five aircraft to the
Cuban route, possibly in anticipation of such diffi-
culties. For the flight to Cuba the passenger load
has been reduced to 60 from the normal 170 in order
to carry more fuel. In addition, up to 17,000 pounds
of freight could be carried depending on the fuel
load. Previously the only regularly scheduled TU-114
service was on a route connecting Moscow and Khaba-
rovsk in the Soviet Far East.
CONFIDENTIAL
Approved For Release 2006/11/16: CIA-RDP82R00025R000300150003-4