Empresa National de Servicios Aeronauticos Antonov An-2's
Victoria Siempre
By Jan Koppen
Photo: Operational An-2 CU-A1178 in front of the Santa Fe control tower.
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Santa Fe
The rough and legendary An-2 is still in service in Cuba. The Cuban An-2’s are designated for agricultural services and mosquito fighting. In the small town of Santa Fe, 20 kilometers west of La Habana, Cuba, one will find the airframe and power plant workshop of ENSA (Empresa National de Servicios Aeronauticos). This is one of the places in Cuba where An-2’s are overhauled. The following An-2’s were in for maintenance: CU-A1800, CU-A1173, CU-A1817, CU-A1814, CU-A1178 and two other An-2’s of which I could not read their registrations. Scattered around the field I found nine An-2 fuselages without registration and all in bad condition. |
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Sancti Spiritus
Also, at the airport of Sancti Spiritus, one can find an ENSA base. This airport, like almost all Cuban airports, is walled which make spotting of aircraft almost impossible. At Sancti Spiritus I nevertheless spotted the following An-2’s: CU-A1056, CU-A1805, CU-A1820 and several other An-2’s without any Marks and/or registrations. |
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Santa Marta Kawama airport, near the village of Santa Marta (about one kilometers west of Varadero, Cuba) is an old airport that was opened in the late fifties, before Fidel Castro came to power. It was open till the late seventies. Now Varadero has a new international airport with is located some 20 kilometers from Varadero. The old airport is mainly used by ENSA An-2’s for paradropping over the Varadero beaches and for fumigation of the beach town of Varadero which is plagued with mosquitoes during the wet season. During my visit in February 2014 CU-C1026 made several paradropping flights during the day. 
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The End