The sole shareholder behind the Venezuelan national carrier Conviasa (V0, Caracas Simón Bolivar), the Venezuelan state, is considering separating the airline into two units; one to service domestic and regional flights while the other would focus on longhaul operations.

Local newspaper El Nacional reports Caracas is considering naming the two subsidiaries Conviasa Regional (Caracas Simón Bolivar) and Conviasa Intercontinental (Caracas Simón Bolivar) with the latter a joint-venture between government and the private sector. Permits and negotiations concerning Conviasa Intercontinental are reported to be "well advanced" with the unit likely to be operational by the beginning of the last quarter of the year.

However, airline employees have questioned the rationale behind the project given that of Conviasa's total of twenty-five aircraft, fourteen aircraft, including four CRJ700s, four E190s, two B737 Classics, and four ATR72s, have been out of service for up to two years in some instances.

In letters to various public bodies including the country's Vice-President, Jorge Arreaza, the workers also questioned the logic of establishing a long haul unit given that Conviasa was forced to lease in aircraft - currently an A330-300 from AirAsia X (D7, Kuala Lumpur International) - to compliment its sole in-house widebody, a 20+ year-old A340-200.

The employees have also questioned management's decision to add an additional 900 staff to its existing compliment of 3,000 despite the airline's state of relative inactivity.

Conviasa currently operates flights between its Caracas Simón Bolivar base and Barinas, Barquisimeto, Coro, El Vigía, Las Piedras, Maracaibo, Maturín, Porlamar, Puerto Ayacucho, Puerto Ordaz/Ciudad Guayana, San Fernando de Apure, San Tomé, and Santo Domingo Buenaventura Vivas domestically with international services offered to Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador, Cuba, Guyana, Spain, and Panama.