MyTravels

Avianca Will Cut Venezuela Flights 73% Amid Devaluation
Earlier this month, Avianca said it has been reducing passenger capacity in Venezuela since August and will cut sales in bolivars to the “minimum possible” as currency controls leave the airline unable to withdraw funds from local ticket purchases. Avianca has $300 million in cash in the country, or about 40 percent of its total cash holdings, according to company’s filings and conference calls.

Venezuela warns airlines not to cut flights amid debt woes
"Airlines have no excuse to reduce their flights to Venezuela," Maduro said during a press conference.

(other than the government not allowing them access to their own money)

"If airlines reduce (flights), I will take severe measures."

"If an airline leaves the country, it's not coming back while we are in government," Maduro said, casting the airlines' complaints as part of a wider "economic war" against his socialist government by political foes and businesses.

AlohaDaveKennedy

Small wonder the airline is cutting capacity - maybe the tourist trade is down since Maduro cannot protect tourists from getting killed.

http://www.eluniversal.com/nacional-...f-german-touri

LoungeBum

As a Venezuelan, knowing the facts every business has to go through, to obtain the foreign currencies from the government. I am considering many of them will reduce their flights to a minimum. (What ever the government say or treat them)

On January I had a flight scheduled to Venezuela which I postponed and United Airlines was charging me about $5000 for the change of date. (IAH-CCS) the ticket was booked on economy at almost $3500 a little bit over price for anyone flying to south america on a less than 5 hours flight.

Airlines are increasing their fares in order to cover their loss created by the government currency policies..

Shame!

camsean

My thoughts are with the people of Venezuela while they struggle to free themselves from the Chavistas.

The BNA Gentleman

How long before Avianca busts?

Sad state of the country, my grandfather (founder of COPEI) is rolling in his grave.

chanjacl

God bless you people of Venezuela...

standingoten

The people elected them and supported Chavez. They deserve to suffer the consequences.

LoungeBum

It was not 100% choice... there will be others who did not vote for them suffering too.

UA Fan

AC did the same. More to come?

KenInEscazu

Thanks, MyTravels, for posting this. It's amazing that I live in Latin America, fly on Avianca frequently, and yet I had no idea that they were so financially invested in Venezuela. This is very alarming.

I don't think many companies could take a hit of 40% of their cash holdings being lost, or even unaccessible, for long without having to make some major cuts to insure their future security. Avianca has been broke before, and as I understand it, Fabio Vallegas brought them back from the dead. Let's just hope he can find a way to survive this.

I currently hold about 80,000 Lifemiles, and that balance changes each month from redemptions and business purchases on the US Bank Lifemiles card. I almost always bump up the balance when they do a 2x1 promotion, but I'm not so sure that I will until the dust settles on this.

Problem for me is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to get saver awards on Copa between SJO and MDE without accepting crazy routing, inconvenient schedules or booking far in advance. That makes my large M+ balance and status pretty useless on my most frequently traveled route. I had to make a short notice reservation for tomorrow morning, for example, and my options were to leave at 6:00 am on Copa or get in at 11:30 pm on AV. I chose CM, so I have to leave my house at 3:30 am. Ugh.

I also have a $350 voucher on AV, so I'm thinking it might be a good idea to cash it in on one of my many upcoming trips. It's only about 700 miles, but the best economy RT fare on a good day right now seems to be $775 a.i. Even at that, it only earns 50% of actual miles flown. That's why I always use award tix. Losing AV would only make things worse.

Kacee

I wonder if this is why AV has been doing all the miles sales. Quick cash.

KenInEscazu

I'm sure that quick cash has always been the motivation behind the promotions, but they have been doing them quite regularly for a long time. Of course they may have seen the writing on the wall for a long time, too.

Frankly, I prefer Copa over Avianca, but with my move to Medellin getting closer by the day, I sure don't want to see them go under. Copa is not a replacement for Avianca in terms of total destination offerings, nor flight frequency within Colombia.

When flying into DFW, I love that I can connect in SAL without having to clear customs and immigration, recheck my bags, etc. at IAH or any other US connection city. The schedule is a bit brutal, with the very early morning departures, but those E190s are soooo smooth and comfortable on top of the connection benefit that I do it when I can.

Kacee

I like Avianca's inter-Colombia fares and frequency compared to COPA/aerorepublica.

KenInEscazu

Of course. Me, too! My concern is for international flights. Copa doesn't fly to Europe, and we really need AV to keep things competitive.

I flew MDE-SJO yesterday on AV, and had to go through BOG. It is getting better, but it still isn't easy. I see that there are now some nacionál flights coming into the main BOG terminal, but I have yet to arrive or depart on one. Climbing those stairs and riding that bus at BOG make Copa look awfully attractive via PTY on that route.

Additionally, I can't remember connecting through BOG without flight cancellations or delays waiting for me upon arrival. And I can't remember my 11:15 am departure from MDE-BOG leaving on time, in spite of the fact that they always tell me it is all the way up until the point that I arrive at the gate.

I once had to re-book on Copa after AV left me stranded and on my own in BOG until the next morning for a misconnect that was their fault. I eventually got sufficient compensation, but I'm not sure it was worth the amount of time it took to get it. Another time, it only took me about three hours of "discussing it" in a back room to convince them that paying for my room was the right thing to do in the same situation.

To be fair, Copa is equally difficult when things go wrong. IME, however, they just don't go wrong nearly as often on Copa. Also in fairness, my AV flights through SAL have always been seamless and on time, and I love their E190s, even in clase economica.

LoungeBum

To update this post, Avianca said their revenues fell 84% due to the cancellations of flights to venezuela.

Alitalia also informed this week that they will cancel their flights during the summer 2014 and Lufthansa has stopped the tickets sales in Venezuelan Bolivares.

I am wondering who is next, and how AA is managing as they are the ones with more flight to / from venezuela.