The Civil Aviation Authority of Venezuela, INAC, has responded with all possible pressure to the decision of several international airlines to suspend flights to the Latin American country due to the lack of security revealed by the United States. The threat on the table is to withdraw traffic rights in Venezuela, which guarantee positions to land and take off at its airports, if the companies do not resume suspended operations.
INAC yesterday gave a 48-hour deadline which weighs on the Spanish companies Iberia, Air Europa and Plus Ultra. Additionally, Chilean Latam, Brazilian Gol, Portuguese TAP and Turkish Turkish Airlines, among others, have stopped flying over Venezuela. They have all reacted to the safety risk alert issued last Friday by the Federal Civil Aviation Authority (FAA) and are constantly monitoring the difficult situation. The Spanish airline Enaire also published a notice to airlines to the same effect. The growing military deployment of the United States in the Caribbean, justified by the Trump administration with the fight against drug trafficking and terrorist organizations, threatens air operations at any altitude in the zone of influence of the Maiquetía Flight Information Region, which concerns entirely Venezuelan airspace and the southern area of the Caribbean Sea.
The association that brings together a large part of the world’s airlines, Iata, has invited the authorities involved in the safety assessment of Venezuelan airspace to dialogue “so that they cooperate in a more aligned way and give greater clarity to the airlines operating in the Flight Information Region (FIR) of Maiquetía”.
The group underlines that the flight suspensions respond to the precautions that the FAA asked for on the 21st and which the Spanish authorities approved yesterday, Monday. Attention is also drawn to the temporary nature of the cancellations, “adopted after a rigorous risk analysis to ensure the safety of passengers, crews and aircraft, in accordance with the international standards established in Annexes 6 and 17 of the Chicago Convention”, explained the association.
If the alarm from the Venezuelan National Institute of Civil Aeronautics (INAC) materializes regarding the revocation of operating rights from airlines that have ceased their activity in the country, Iata underlines that the first to lose will be Venezuela itself with a reduction in its already reduced air connectivity. The group claims to speak on behalf of its members when it assures that they will remain “committed to re-establishing operations to and from Venezuela as soon as conditions allow”.
On Saturday Iberia decided to ground planes covering the Madrid-Caracas route (one daily flight in each direction except Fridays and Sundays), a trend which Air Europa joined yesterday. The latter, which offers five weekly frequencies between Spain and Venezuela, has already canceled the take-off from Madrid scheduled for this Tuesday at 4.40pm. and the jump from Caracas to Barajas at 11.10pm. At the moment Air Europa has not indicated a scheduled date for the return to Venezuela. Plus Ultra, for its part, canceled the flight to Caracas today and is studying measures for the next few days.
