Millions left without power after major blackout hits Cuba's western region

HAVANA (AP) — A blackout left millions of people without power in Havana and the rest of western Cuba on Wednesday in the latest outage on an island struggling with dwindling oil reserves and a crumbling electric grid.

Government radio station Radio Rebelde quoted an energy official as saying that it could take at least 72 hours to restore operations at one of Cuba's largest thermoelectric power plants, where a shutdown sparked the outage.

The government’s electric utility said on social platform X that the outage affected people from the western town of Pinar del Rio to the central town of Camaguey.

Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy wrote on X late Wednesday that the government was powering critical infrastructure in the affected region as two power plants came online. Such infrastructure includes hospitals and medical clinics.

“We are working to restore the National Electric System amid a complex energy situation,” he wrote earlier on X.

The U.S. Embassy warned people to “prepare for significant disruptions” and conserve fuel, water, food and mobile phone batteries. “Cuba’s national power grid is increasingly unreliable, and scheduled and unscheduled power outages are prolonged and a daily occurrence across the country, including Havana,” it said on X.

By late afternoon, the government said crews had restored power to 2.5% of Havana, or some 21,100 customers, noting that efforts were gradual and tied to what the system's conditions would allow. It did not provide updated numbers by late Wednesday night.

“We trust in the experience and effort of the electrical workers to overcome this situation in the shortest possible time,” Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz wrote on X.

As night fell, people across Havana lingered on doorsteps and used wood or charcoal to prepare “caldosas,” a popular soup shared among neighbors who contribute items including vegetables, chicken and meat. A group of musicians along the city's famed seawall played into the night.

Others played dominoes by a rechargeable lightbulb.

“With the power outages, this is the only thing we young people have to distract ourselves,” Jeferson Silvera said.

Daily, prolonged outages have become so common in Cuba that 66-year-old Genoveva Torres was waiting for power to return at night as usual to cook dinner. She was perturbed when told about the massive blackout.

“My God, until when?” she exclaimed. “Then we won't eat. We'll have to eat bread again.”

State media reported that the outage was caused by a shutdown of the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric power plant east of Havana following a leak in its boiler.

Radio Rebelde quoted the plant's technical director Román Pérez Castañeda as saying that crews must first locate the fault before repairing it and restarting the unit.

Pérez Castañeda said that a pipe burst in the boiler, causing a water leak and subsequent fire that was extinguished without major damage, according to Radio Rebelde.

The outage caught 63-year-old Odalis Sánchez out on the street with her grandson. She was unable to walk because of a recent operation, so she called someone for a ride home.

Some 200 people waited at a bus stop near her, but buses were not running given a lack of fuel, so they tried to get a ride via any means available, including hitchhiking.

“I need to be able to get home to see what I can do,” Sánchez said. “Without power, you can’t do anything. My grandson also is studying and I have to make him food. Public transportation isn’t helping.”

It is the second such outage to affect western Cuba in three months.

The outage in early December lasted nearly 12 hours. Officials said a fault in a transmission line linking two power plants caused an overload and led to the collapse of the energy system's western sector.

Authorities have noted that some thermoelectric plants have been operating for over 30 years and receive little maintenance given the high cost. U.S. sanctions also have prevented the government from buying new equipment and specialized parts, officials say.

Cuba also is struggling with dwindling oil reserves after the U.S. attacked Venezuela in early January, which halted critical petroleum shipments from the South America country. Later that month, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on any country that would sell or supply Cuba with oil.

Ernesto Couto Martínez, 76, was trying to find a ride home and said he would confront the latest outage “with the spirit that all Cubans have.”

“We must keep fighting. There’s no other way,” he said. “We have to move forward, blockade or no blockade.”

Last month, Cuba’s government implemented austere fuel-saving measures and warned that jet fuel wouldn’t be available at nine airports until mid-March.

Prior to the attack on Venezuela, the island already was struggling with a crumbling electric grid, generation deficits and interruptions in fuel supplies.

Coto reported from San José, Costa Rica.

Follow AP’s Latin America coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

A vehicle drives down a street during a blackout in Havana, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A vehicle drives down a street during a blackout in Havana, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A man gives a girl a spoonful of soup on a street during a blackout in Havana, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People cross a street during a blackout in Havana, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People wait to take public transportation during a blackout in Havana, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People wait to take public transportation during a blackout in Havana, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A woman receives a donation from Mexico at a state-run bodega during a blackout in Havana, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People lounge on a porch during a blackout in Havana, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A man rides a scooter past a wrecked car and garbage during a blackout in Havana, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Spirit Airlines, the scrappy discounter that once rattled the industry with cheeky ads and rock-bottom fares, took its final flight after 34 years of upending the business of flying.

Once worth as much as roughly $5.5 billion on the stock market, the airline known for its bright yellow planes said Saturday it had shut down after its final flight departed from Detroit and landed safely in Dallas.

“For more than 30 years, Spirit Airlines has played a pioneering role in making travel more accessible and bringing people together while driving affordability across the industry,” CEO Dave Davis said in a statement.

The announcement comes after two bankruptcy filings in as many years that allowed Spirit to repay lenders. That was followed in recent months by a final, mad-dash scramble to save money by cutting routes, squeezing concessions from unions and pursuing a potential financing deal with the Trump administration that could have provided a lifeline had it panned out.

But in the end, higher jet fuel prices triggered by the Iran war drained cash from the business at an accelerating pace, forcing it to call it quits.

“This is tremendously disappointing and not the outcome any of us wanted," Davis said.

It began as Charter One Airlines, which ran vacation tours in the early 80s, then grew in popularity and profits two decades later with no-frills “unbundled” fares allowing travelers to forgo basic services — bag handling, seat selection, even the printing of tickets — or pay extra.

Proudly penny-pinching and irritatingly so for many passengers, Spirit was for years run by the famously frugal Ben Baldanza, who ordered his burgers plain, bristled at paying extra for pickles he didn't want, and flew in the same cramped seats as his customers. He was unapologetic about the airline’s nickel-and-diming them, saying the issue wasn’t that Spirit was cheap, but that passengers were seeing an itemized bill for the first time — and didn’t like it.

For all the complaints, though, Spirit’s model became so influential that giant airlines with decades more operating history and global destinations found they had to follow suit by slashing prices and introducing “basic economy” fares.

On its final day of operations, Spirit had safely flown more than 50,000 passengers, a company spokesperson said. The airline was also working to get more than 1,300 crew members back home. About 17,000 employees — some with more than 25 years at the airline — learned Friday they had lost their jobs, many finding out through media reports, the spokesperson said.

Despite its abrupt end, Spirit left behind a reputation that was impossible to ignore.

Kendria Talton, who flew Friday on Spirit from Dallas to Atlanta with her daughter for a dance competition, arrived at the airport Saturday trying to find a new way home.

Talton said she had flown Spirit multiple times because of the price. “Other than that, I mean nobody even likes Spirit,” she said. “They’ve always talked about Spirit for years.”

A key part of that image came from its bold, over-the-top ads that some critics slammed as tasteless and indeed sometimes backfired.

After the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010, the company ran a “Check Out the Oil on Our Beaches” ad, playing on the double entendre of suntan oil and the real black stuff.

Next up was a “Weiner Sale” after New York Congressman Anthony Weiner was caught in a sexting scandal, an ad that also included the line, “fares just too hard to resist.” Later came its infamous “MILF Sale,” referring to “Many Islands, Low Fares,” but also referencing, with a wink and a nod, to the sexual acronym.

Ironically, Spirit was also taken down by its own success as more traditional airlines mimicked its offering and began to steal its customers with their own low fares.

In the liquidation, ticket holders will be issued refunds for flights purchased directly through Spirit with a credit or debit card. The airline said compensation for Spirit customers who booked flights using any other methods, including a voucher, credit or points, “will be determined at a later date through the bankruptcy process.”

Spirit had been struggling with losses for years, but its going-out-of-business announcement still came as a shock.

Just a few months earlier this year, Spirit said it would likely emerge from its second bankruptcy in the late spring or early summer after striking a preliminary deal with lenders.

Then the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran four days later, sending global crude prices soaring above $100. Gasoline prices followed closely behind and jet fuel prices more than doubled in some markets.

Spirit struggled especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, amid rising operational costs and its mounting debt. By its first Chapter 11 filing in November 2024, Spirit had lost more than $2.5 billion since the start of 2020.

University of Houston student Angelina Deruelle, 23, was at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport on Friday, Spirit’s final day of operations, after her flight to Texas was canceled. She said the loss of the airline as an affordable travel option would be difficult to accept.

“I feel like Spirit is just affordable, simple, nothing too fancy," she said. "It’s just like home.”

Associated Press journalists Jeff Amy in Atlanta, Michelle Chapman in New York and Daniel Kozin in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed to this report.

FILE - A Spirit Airlines Airbus A320 prepares to take off from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Jan. 19, 2021, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)