Conviasa (V0, Caracas Simón Bolivar) has terminated flights to Colombia as of Thursday, July 27. A review of the carrier's website shows its former 6x weekly Caracas Simón Bolivar-Bogotá return service is no longer available for booking.
Though the state-owned carrier has yet to officially comment on the move, private Venezuelan media outlets have shown a directive issued by the country's civil aviation regulator (Instituto Nacional de Aeronaútica Civil - INAC) ordering the withdrawal which came just a day before Colombian carrier Avianca (Bogotá) chose to terminate its Caracas flights from Friday, July 28, onwards.
Avianca's withdrawal comes at a time when foreign carriers are abandoning Venezuela in droves citing security concerns as well as route economics. Opposition-led protests against Socialist President Nicolas Maduro and his regime reached their pinnacle this weekend ahead of Sunday's vote on a new constituent assembly, widely seen as Maduro's attempt at bypassing the opposition-controlled parliament and entrenching socialist rule.
With over 100 civilians dead in the last four months, Iberia and Air France briefly suspended their respective services to Caracas this past weekend in anticipation of a possible violent reaction to a socialist victory.
