The main airport of Venezuela, Maiquetía International Airport serving Caracas, received flights from Colombia, Panama, and Russia this Monday, while maintaining the scheduled arrival of other aircraft from Bogotá, Panama City, and Curaçao, as confirmed by EFE, amidst cancellations by several companies.
Iberia typically operates five weekly frequencies between Madrid and Caracas (ten flights in total), as does Air Europa. Meanwhile, Plus Ultra operates four flights (one between Tenerife and the Venezuelan capital), Laser operates another four (which leases aircraft and crews from Plus Ultra), and Estelar operates three more (using Iberojet aircraft under lease).
Two of the four flights arrived in Venezuela operated by the Panamanian airline Copa Airlines (from Bogotá and Panama City), one by the Venezuelan Conviasa (St. Petersburg), and one by the also Venezuelan Laser (Bogotá), which has another flight scheduled to Curaçao.
The airline most affected by the suspension is Plus Ultra, as it concentrates almost all of its operations in Latin America, especially in Venezuela, whereas Iberia and Air Europa have hundreds of weekly flights to the region.
A Copa flight also departed with a delay to the Colombian capital, and the airline has two other flights scheduled to Panama.
Meanwhile, an Avior aircraft took off for Curaçao, with another flight to Bogotá scheduled.
According to Iberia sources, their intention is to resume flights to Venezuela "as soon as full security guarantees are restored." Iberia has canceled its operations to Venezuela until December 31, following the new recommendation from the Spanish Aviation Safety Agency (AESA) on the same Monday, thus extending the suspension agreed upon on Saturday, November 29.
The Plus Ultra airline announced this Monday the suspension of its flights between Madrid and Caracas for this Tuesday and next Thursday, sources from the company told EFE, which is continuing to evaluate the situation for the future.
In this way, Conviasa remains the only direct route to Europe from Venezuela, after Iberia, Air Europa, TAP, Turkish Airlines, Laser, and Plus Ultra temporarily suspended their flights in Caracas following a warning from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued on November 21, to "exercise extreme caution" when flying over the South American country and the southern Caribbean.
The Spanish Aviation Safety Agency (AESA) launched a new "high recommendation" this Monday for civilian operators not to fly over the Maiquetía Flight Information Region (FIR)—the regions into which airspace is divided—which serves Caracas, until December 31.
The Venezuelan Avior will fly from the Caribbean island and also from the Colombian capital, while Copa has a flight scheduled departing from Panama, all with destination Caracas.
Regarding departures from Venezuelan soil, a Laser flight has already departed for Bogotá, and another flight scheduled for 9:45 local time (13:45 GMT) to Curaçao has been postponed to 14:00 (20:00 GMT).
The new notice (a 'notam' in aeronautical jargon) from AESA comes after the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) warned last Saturday about the risks of operating in Venezuela until next January 31.
There is a scheduled itinerary to Havana and another to Cancún via the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa.
Specifically for Iberia, seats to Caracas (126,000 this year) represent only 1.7% of the total long-haul seats (7.46 million). Neither Air Europa nor Plus Ultra, consulted by EFE, have provided this information.
