In a brief statement released hours ago the Havana Airport operator, Empresa Cubana de Aeropuertos y Servicios Aeroportuarios, announced that it will suspend operations of the José Martí terminal from 22:00 local time today, 26 September, until 00:00 September 28.
Havana declared a cyclone alert in its six most western provinces as the hurricane intensified. Ian is expected to hit Cuba on Monday evening as a major hurricane and then become an even stronger Category 4 with top winds of 225km per hour (140 miles per hour) over warm Gulf of Mexico waters before striking the US state of Florida later in the week. Tampa began to implement similar measures.
«Given the continuing deterioration of the weather conditions… it was decided to establish from 0800 (1200 GMT) the Cyclone Alert Phase,» said Cuban Civil Defense Staff.
Airport operator reccommends passengers to contact airlines for cancellation/rescheduling arrangements.
