Amid growing civil unrest and social fissures so deep it may take a revolution to restore order, four more airlines are suspending service to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
On Sunday, a sham election will take place in which President Nicolás Maduro will further try to consolidate power through the creation of a constituent assembly. This assembly will have the power to dismantle or rework the country’s constitution and any branch of the government seen as disloyal to the dictatorial president.
Venezuelans do not have the option of voting no – only choosing assembly delegates, all of whom will be loyal to Maduro. The USA, which buys half of Venezuela’s oil, has already announced sanctions.
The situation will only get uglier.
Delta will end service to Venezuela on September 01, 2017. Avianca will end service from Lima and Caracas on August 15, 2017. Avianca issued the following statement–
This measure is based on the need to adapt several processes to international standards, improve airport infrastructure in Venezuela and ensure consistency in operations. Nevertheless, Avianca will examine this decision, once it knows the results of the technical work that will be carried out by the Authorities of both countries to solve these operational and security impediments.
Now Air France and Iberia will temporarily suspend service to Venezuela in anticipation of violence over Sunday’s election. Both carriers intend to resume service in August, with Iberia resuming service on August 2nd and Air France on August 5th.
The Money Problem
This is more than just a problem of crew safety and airport infrastructure. Venezuela has strict capital controls that have prevented carriers from repatriating money from ticket sales within Venezuela. As the country’s currency continues to sink into worthlessness, the carriers not only cannot take money out but even if they could it loses value each day.
CONCLUSION
I say this as an outsider, an American, but someone who is deeply empathetic for the Venezuelan people. I trust that the present administration will be disposed of in one way or another and a new generation of leadership will help to usher in peach and prosperity. Until then, look for more airlines to cut or suspend service.
image: Mathieu Marquer / Wikimedia Commons
Appreciate the news regarding airline services to Venezuela. But calling it a “sham election” is out of line. This is not political blog. Any information you had in relation to the ongoing event are from a third party news/press agency.
The way how they run their country may not inline with whatever you believe is right. Then again, I’m sure you are not in a capacity to render any judgement.
This is his blog and he can write whatever he wants. Freedom of speech–maybe it’s something you don’t understand and something the Venezuelan dictator doesn’t want Venezuelans to have.
Lol. A freedom of speech talking about ass licking.
Pretty funny and low…
I don’t think it will be long before airlines like American, TAP or Turkish cancel service to Caracas. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Air France drop Caracas for good. I could maybe see Iberia and Air Europa staying given the Spanish links. They have already lost Air Canada, United, Lufthansa, Alitalia, more are to come. Sadly I think the situation will get worse before it gets any better. I wonder if Marriott may even consider closing their JW Marriott and Renaissance hotels in Caracas.
@YYZFlyer : based on my very limited understanding of the hospitality industry, most of marriott’s “properties” are simply managed by them, but ownership resides with someone else (typically a REIT, but for Venezuela, usually just a couple of owners)
And thus, the decision to remain in business shall lie solely in the hands of the owner. Even if a property is falling far behind branded standards, Marriott’s last resort recourse is probably just de-flag the property, but can’t force their closure. Someone correct me if I’m way off.
@Henry Lax- I do believe that you are right about Marriott and many other hotel chains just managing most of their hotels and not even owning them. De-flag the property is the perfect way to describe it, I couldn’t think of a word other than to close. I don’t know if this is right but maybe Marriott is stuck in some sort of contract and can’t de-flag their properties in Caracas if they wanted to now.
specifically, marriott is a branding and reservation company; they rarely manage hotels themselves, and they no longer own hotels.
Yea, my heart goes out to the Venezuelan people….
“… usher in peach and prosperity”, you say? I hope you can usher in spell-checking 🙂
I see no orthographic defects 😉
Don’t be a douchebag.
Maduro and his followers are a bunch of thugs who have looted their country at the expense of its people.
As counter-intuitive as it may seem, the best way to beat a tyrannical regime is to do business with them. Give the oppressed a chance to interact with the outside world, and give the oppressors less talking-points about how evil the outside world is.
On paper, true. In practice, never happened. There’s too much EGO on the side of the ‘outside world’….
My comment was suppose to go under Rick B.