Aruba Airlines (AG, Aruba) along with InselAir (Curacao), Aeroméxico (AM, México City International), and TAME Ecuador (Quito International) have all reached an agreement with the Venezuelan government concerning the payment of debts owed to them for the year 2013. Following a series of closed door meetings, Finance Minister Rodolfo Marco Torres also announced that a deal had also been reached covering Avianca (Bogotá) and TACA International Airlines (San Salvador International) earnings for the year 2012.
Among other breakthroughs for airlines in talks with Nicholas Maduro's socialist government is the prospect of air fares being pegged to the country's weaker Sicad II exchange rate of about VED50 per USD compared with the official rate of 6.3 to the dollar with effect from July 1.
Even with the disbursements, the Latin American country is still in possession of over USD3.5billion in unpaid ticket remittances owed to international airlines. Caracas has yet to comment on plans to repay its other creditors, among them American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth), Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International), Air Europa (UX, Palma de Mallorca), Air Canada (AC, Montréal Trudeau), Alitalia (AZA, Rome Fiumicino), Iberia (IB, Madrid Barajas), and TAP Portugal (Lisbon).
Earlier this month, strongman Nicholas Maduro attempted to play down recent reductions in frequencies to Venezuela claiming carriers were redirecting their capacity to Brazil ahead of the upcoming 2014 FIFA World Cup. The reduction in flights has also had a serious knock-on effect to the local economy.
According to the Mercosur press, Venezuela's state-owned Ipostel was forced to announce last week that it was suspending delivery of international mail as a result of foreign airlines' reduced services.
