DL & CO banned from Venezuela effective 3/1/06
 

CARACAS (AP)--Venezuela has prohibited Continental Airlines (CAL) and Delta Airlines (DAL) from flying into this South American nation and is restricting American Airlines (AMR), Francisco Plaz, the president of the National Aviation Institute, said.

Speaking late Thursday, Plaz said that the measure was taken because the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration had established a similar ban on commercial jets registered in Venezuela 10 years ago due to safety violations.

The ban would take effect on March 1, Plaz told the local Globovision television channel.

Delta Airlines currently services a daily route from Simon Bolivar international Airport to Atlanta while Continental Airlines has daily flights to Houston and weekly flights to New York. American Airlines services daily routes to Puerto Rico and Miami.

A spokeswoman for the Venezuelan Association of Airlines, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to be quoted by name, told The Associated Press the three U.S.-based airlines received notification of the ban on Thursday and would meet soon with Venezuelan aviation officials to discuss the measure.

In 1996, the FAA ruled that Venezuela must tighten its airline safety procedures and downgraded its civil aviation authority to Category II, restricting flights because Venezuela allegedly didn't meet international safety standards.

Venezuelan officials say they have improved safety standards since then.

"We have exhausted all avenues with the U.S. aeronautical authority," Venezuela's National Aviation Institute said in a statement issued Thursday. "We have been forced to reduce the frequency of flights of U.S. airline companies from the U.S."

U.S. aviation authorities have "failed to give Venezuelan airlines the rights they deserve under bilateral agreements," the statement added.

This applies to American Airlines also.

No, AA's flights are being reduced, but not entirely cancelled.

Interesting. While this will invariably hurt DL, CO, and AA, it will also hurt Venezuela in both international reputation and business opportunity. Then again, it's probably just a ploy that will be called off on Feb. 28. Probably the biggest losers are pax., b/c it will be harder to get on a direct US-Venezuela flight. Last time I flew to CCS from MIA, I went on LACSA via SJO, and this was a true pain since it took me hours out of my way, and essentially a full day in each direction!

Can someone post a link to the original story? I can't find anything dateline USA that calls this a ban on any of the three airlines. It refers to it as "limitations". I'd say any outright banning of flights is pretty short sighted and will lead Venezuela down a path that won't serve their interests well in the long run.

Thanks, but I don't subscribe to WSJ. I did find a link to a Reuters story dateline Caracas. Text here. If this is the same release that you are reading, then none of the three airlines have been shut out of Venezuela completely.

Here’s a link that doesn’t require a subscription: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060224/..._airline_ban_3

Pretty bad timing. If I were Delta, I might just pull the plug. Delta had just recently altered the timing of their flights into Venezuela in order to accomodate the crumbling road infrastructure. The bridge connecting CCS airport to Caracas is closed indefinitely. http://www.osac.gov/Reports/report.cfm?contentID=41039 and http://www.vheadline.com/SPECIAL_REPORT_VENEZUELA.pdf

Pretty sad for an oil exporting nation to have such poor public transport infrastructure.

But on the other hand, gas is cheaper in Venezuela than anywhere else on earth (although I don't know if this is also true for foreign carriers fueling up at CCS). At gas stations, it's literally pennies per gallon. Last time I was in Venezuela and returning a rental car, I put a few gallons in the tank to get it back to full, and tried to pay with either a US$20 or a credit card. The final bill was so small that the attendant just smiled and told me to drive off because he didn't want to be bothered with changing foreign currency or processing a credit card transaction! Try that in other countries!

Why is that UAE has the money to buy P&O and and Venezuela does not even have a showcase bridge for their airport?

Different priorities ?

Uh, the UAE constitution allows a smaller percentage of the nations oil income to be sent to El Presidente's private Swiss bank account? :D

So you don't say "rich as a sheikh", but rather "rich as a president" ?
Taking into account some of our presidents, that could indeed be more accurate.

U.S. Airlines Hit Venezuelan Turbulence
 

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/sto...n/10270385.html

...

Miami aviation consultant Bob Booth said that while he does not support the Chavez government, the Federal Aviation Administration's safety restrictions on Venezuela, which are known as "Category Two" restrictions, seem unfair. They allow unlimited flights to foreign countries by U.S. carriers but restrict flights to the U.S. by carriers from the foreign countries.

"Obviously, this [action] is just plain tragic," Booth said. "But I've been saying for 10 years that if Venezuela is an unsafe place for Venezuelan carriers to fly to the U.S., it should be unsafe for U.S. carriers to fly to Venezuela."

Venezuelan carrier Aeropostal is limited to three daily flights to Miami from Caracas, Valencia and Maracaibo. All must be flown with airplanes "wet-leased" from a U.S. company and flown by that company's pilots. The flight attendants are Venezuelan, however.

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