Air Canada (AC, Montréal Trudeau) has suspended flights to Caracas Simón Bolivar in the wake of civil unrest in the Venezuelan capital. The Canadian carrier said it could "no longer ensure the safety of its operations in Venezuela" with its last flight leaving Caracas on Sunday, March 16.
The Canadian national carrier's move flies in the face of recent threats by Venezuelan president, Nicholas Maduro, to permanently ban any airlines who pull out now, from ever returning in the future.
"For any airline that reduces (operations) I will take severe measures. The company that leaves the country will not return while we hold power," Maduro told a press conference in Caracas. "If they [the airlines] leave, we'll have enough options to substitute them. That's why we have the new Conviasa (V0, Caracas Simón Bolivar). And there are many planes from the world coming in and I don't know how many airlines are asking for permission to cover flights to Panama, Central America and South America."
He added that any reduction in operations "was part of the war they want to wage in Venezuela."
Avianca (Bogotá), Copa Airlines (CM, Panamá City Tocumen International), and TAME Ecuador (Quito International) have already announced reduction in services to Venezuela citing a lack of profitability. Venezuelan law requires all air tickets to be sold in non-convertible bolivars which the government then changes into US dollars. However, for the past six months, all foreign airlines that serve Venezuela have been battling to recover USD3.7billion in revenue owed them by the local foreign exchange control syndicate, CADIVI.
