Juan Gualberto Gomez International Airport guide

The airport opened in 1989, inaugurated by Fidel Castro, and replaced the older Varadero airfield at Santa Marta, now known as Kawama Airport. It is named after Juan Gualberto Gómez (1854-1933), a journalist, independence fighter and campaigner for the rights of Black Cubans. The field sits in Matanzas province, near the village of Carbonera, and lies closer to the city of Matanzas than to the Varadero resort strip it serves.

A single runway, 06/24, runs 3,502 metres on an asphalt surface at an elevation of 64 metres. The airport handled 1.28 million passengers in 2009 and about 2.5 million in 2018, which made it the second busiest in Cuba after José Martí International Airport in Havana.

Most traffic is leisure travel to the beach resorts of the Hicacos peninsula. Canadian carriers such as Air Canada and Sunwing have been the main source of visitors, and American Airlines flies to Miami. Several European charter operators, including TUI and Condor, ended their service in 2024. The terminal is compact, with a departures lounge and cafeterias on the upper level, a smaller air-conditioned VIP lounge below, and shops selling rum, cigars and souvenirs.