The “pandemic uncertainty” of Venezuelan airlines due restrictions.

Redacción - Aviación al Día

5 years ago

Venezuela’s private airlines were stopped for nine months due to the confinement the government decreed because of the pandemic, and when it relaxed the restrictions and finally approved flights, a few weeks later it closed the routes with the highest demand.

Flights to and from Panama and the Dominican Republic, used by Venezuelans to make connections to other destinations, were cancelled two weeks after the official resumption by order of the Executive, which left open only the lines to Turkey and Bolivia, close allies of President Nicolas Maduro, as well as Mexico.

“The uncertainty does not cease and rather becomes a pandemic in Venezuelan commercial aviation,” Humberto Figuera, president of the Venezuelan Airline Association (ALAV), told AFP, indicating that the measure affects between 50,000 and 60,000 people inside and outside the country.

Maduro’s government again restricted operations, interrupted since last March, a measure justified by the increase of coronavirus infections from abroad.

According to the last official balance published on Wednesday, of the 190 new confirmed cases, 20 were imported.

Unlike other countries, Venezuela did not deliver a relief package to the airlines, which were hard hit by the crisis before the pandemic.

And with this measure there was no other choice but to stop and reorganize.

“Tendency to close”

Avior, of private capital, received on Tuesday the permission to make six flights between Caracas and Cancun with its Boeing 737-400, between December 25 and January 10, according to the document of the aeronautical authority to which the AFP had access.

The line was working against the clock to receive the “slot” (position) in Mexico and hire a company to provide the service on the ground there.

Laser, another Venezuelan line, also announced flights to Cancun, until January 14th.

Venezuela’s air activity plummeted due to a massive exodus of airlines in 2013, as they were unable to repatriate billions of dollars due to a tight exchange control in effect at the time.

There are currently nine Venezuelan flag lines operating, although most are on charter flights and in the three authorized domestic destinations.

ALAV fears that the state-owned Conviasa, the only one covering Bolivia, will build a monopoly. Although it will now share the route to Mexico with Avior and Laser.

Of the international routes, only Turkish Airlines remains, which operates the route to Istanbul. Before the pandemic there were 10, including several European ones, as well as the Panamanian Copa, which closed the frequency to Caracas by order of its country’s government.

Avior’s permission to fly to Mexico lasts until January 10, and after that? Maduro has shown a radicalization at the beginning of 2021 due to the increase in cases.

“I think there is a tendency to close,” said Juan Bracamonte, president of Avior.

Pilots cook to survive

Moving a Venezuelan plane, Figuera said, costs about $3,500 an hour and requires qualified personnel who, like the planes, have been on standby for months.

Except for the maintenance team, which did not stop, many pilots, flight attendants and ground staff are on unpaid leave or receiving less pay.

Juan José Castro is 53 years old, 30 of which have been on board aircraft. He worked as an airline pilot, a cargo plane pilot, and today he works in private aviation, which has stopped and has no prospect of reopening.

“Here it has been a total stop, very abrupt, and it has affected many families,” said Castro, assuring that all his circle of friends are standing like him.

“It is one of the years that I have been on the ground the most,” added this man in his home, where he has exploited his cooking skills – until now a hobby – to complete his budget, which has come to nothing: he receives half a salary.

He sells ham bread, a complement to the Venezuelan Christmas dinner, at $15 a piece, but he can hardly wait to get back on his Cessna Citation II.

Marián Gabazú, 20, works in a restaurant while the sector is reactivated and can reapply for a job as a purser, one year after finishing the course in an academy in Caracas.

“I haven’t gone beyond filling out the form… but I haven’t lost hope”.