Venezuelan Carrier, Conviasa, Launches Flights to Syria
Taylor Rains January 07, 2020
Venezuela’s national carrier, Conviasa, has just announced a new route set to launch in March 2020: Caracas, Venezuela to Damascus, Syria. As of now, the airline’s website is only showing flights operating in March, with the outbound leg departing on Mondays beginning on the 2nd and the return leg operating on Wednesdays, with the last one scheduled on the 25th. There is also a flight departing on March 30th with no return scheduled yet, but if the schedule remains constant, it should operate on Wednesday, April 1.
Details of the Flight
The flight will be operated on the airline’s only A340-200 aircraft, leaving Venezuela at 4:00 PM and landing in Syria at 10:30 AM the next day. The outbound flight is scheduled for 12 hours and 30 minutes. The return flight leaves Syria at 10:30 AM and arrives back in Venezuela at 7:30 PM, with a flight time of a whopping 15 hours.
Interesting Choice of Route
It is not suspected that this flight is meant for tourism given Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis and Syria’s instability. Rather, SimpleFlying suspects the route is a political move. The flight’s $1700 route trip fare is outside the budget for your average Syrian or Venezuelan holiday traveler, and the aircraft is only fitted with economy class seats—no business or first-class option. Furthermore, there isn’t exactly a high demand for this route either.
Whoever is planning to fly on this route may be for the aid of Venezuela’s troubled economy, considering both country’s presidents, Bashar al-Assad of Syria and Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, have been sanctioned by the United States. Maybe the airline is looking to use the route for cargo rather than passenger load, but nothing has been said to confirm that.
[Image: Conviasa]
