The situation in Venezuela is not getting any better. With violence increasing as the economy further descends into chaos, United Airlines now fears for the safety of its crews. Rather than suspend service completely, it has taken a novel to approach to ensure that its crews spend only an hour on the ground in Caracas.
United Flights to Caracas Will Stop in Aruba as of 04 April 2017
Currently, United’s daily Houston (IAH) to Caracas (CCS) flight departs in the morning and flies non-stop to CCS. Although the plane makes a quick turn, the round-trip is slightly too long to be made by a single crew. Consequently, crews are forced to spend a night in Caracas, a city that has a staggering crime rate (now world’s most violent city).
To reduce the risk to its employees, United’s outbound flight from IAH to CCS will make a one-hour ground stop in Aruba (AUA) to change crews starting on April 4th. The new crew will continue to Caracas then immediately back to Houston. As a result, no United crew will have to step off the plane (except for the captain’s safety walk around).
With President Nicolás Maduro vowing never to let an airline back if they leave, United is wise to avoid suspending service completely. While the country continues to deteriorate economically and socially, it was already dangerous enough in 2014 for Air Canada to pull out.
The new route will operate on the following schedule–
Caracas was a meal service exception route, still offering complimentary meals. With the new flight now a redeye, no more free meals will be provided in economy class during the outbound journey (nor in business class). A complimentary hot lunch will still be served for the non-stop return.
No New United Fifth Freedom Route from AUA-CCS
United currently serves Aruba from Houston once weekly on Saturdays. Despite this new daily Houston to Aruba flight, United does not have the rights (yet) to carry passengers only as far as Aruba. Further, United cannot pick up passengers in Aruba and transport then to Caracas. Too bad, that would have made an interesting Fifth Freedom route!
CONCLUSION
This is a clever solution to a glaring safety problem. In all honesty, I’d rather walk the streets of Damascus, Kabul, or Baghdad than Caracas. But then again, I walked the streets of Bogota back when it held the dubious honor of being world’s most violent city and lived to tell about it! United Airlines’ Venezuela service will continue, albeit a bit less convenient than before…
It would be logistically difficult for United to operate that route as a fifth freedom flight, due to AUA being an airport with immigration Preclearance so how would you separate nonprocessed pax from processed pax, excellent read btw.
I’ve traveled to Venezuela about 30-40 times, but my last journey there was in 2008. By that time, the country was very dangerous and the trip between the city and the airport was perilous. In fact, the airport itself is not secure outside of the terminal area (behind security) and one of the greatest challenges facing anyone who steps outside is how to know the difference between a legitimate car service and someone who is about to kidnap or rob you. That’s not an overstatement; when I used to travel there, my company would email me a copy of the driver’s ID photo – and we were not to drive off with anyone else. Even the state department’s travel discussion on Venezuela discusses the safety issues involving CCS.
I was once transported in a car that broke down on the highway to Caracas. We were robbed at gunpoint within 5 minutes of stopping on the site – and it was by someone who came from a nearby neighborhood. This was a not a setup, I knew the driver and he actually lost more than I did. To add perspective, I’ve traveled throughout Latin America, and made many trips to pretty dangerous countries like Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Actually had some great experiences in the latter two nations, without any difficulty whatsoever.
The fact that Venezuela is much more dangerous now than it was 9 years ago is sobering, because it was terrible back then. United is making a very smart and responsible move in caring for the safety of their crews and I applaud them for that. I only wish they had done this earlier, for the sake of the crews.
Its more cheap to pay bulletproof car to The crew and stay 6 miles hotel close to AirPort
y como hacen las demas aerolineas que pernatan en caracas estan metidos en el acecho a venezuela es todo, lo demas es cuento.
Alta criminalidad en esa ciudad, malandraje con el moño suelto, no tiene solución ese país….
I have to say this seems like a big bonus for the crew as well. You now get to spend the whole day in Aruba. Arrive in Aruba at 9:20am, hit the hotel for a quick nap and then head to the beach.
No!!!! They only spend one hour in Aruba, the flight back to Houston from CCS is non-stop.
Yes!!! They are switching crews in Aruba so one there will always be one crew spending the night. Pay attention!
Only the pilots will stay in Aruba. The flight attendant will be working and awake the whole time! From Houston to Aruba to Caracas and back to Houston! This will be at least a 14 hours day. It is not safe and unfair.
@Julia: Are you sure about this? How can a FA work a shift that long on a 737 without crew rest?
Both pilots and flight attendants will layover in Aruba. The second day they will fly to CCS and then on to IAH. If they were making the complete journey they would have legality issues. There would be no point in making the stop if they worked the whole thing. The stop would just add to their duty time.
It’s only a bonus fro the pilots. It is even worse for the flight attendants.