Venezuela’s private airlines were shut down for nine months due to the incarceration the government enacted over the pandemic, and when it relaxed restrictions and eventually approved flights, it closed the routes with the highest demand a few weeks later.
Flights to and from Panama and the Dominican Republic, which were used by Venezuelans to make connections to other destinations, were canceled two weeks after the official resumption by order of the executive branch, which left only the lines with Turkey and Bolivia open. allies of the President Nicolás Maduro, next to Mexico.
“The uncertainty does not end and it is more likely to become a pandemic in Venezuelan commercial aviation,” Humberto Figuera, president of the Venezuelan Airlines Association (ALAV), told AFP, indicating that the measure will be between 50,000 and 60,000 people inside and outside the country. country.
Maduro’s government has once again curtailed activities interrupted since March, a measure justified by the increase in coronavirus infections from abroad.
According to the latest official balance sheet published Wednesday, 20 of the 190 new confirmed cases were imported.
Unlike other countries, Venezuela did not provide an aid package to airlines, which had been badly affected by the crisis before the pandemic.
And with this measure, there was nothing else to do but to stop and reorganize.
– “Tendency to close” –
Avior, of private capital, was cleared on Tuesday to make six flights between Caracas and Cancun with its Boeing 737-400, between December 25 and January 10, according to the aviation authority document that the AFP had access to. .
The line worked against time to get the “lock” (position) in Mexico and hire a company to provide the service ashore there.
Laser, another Venezuelan line, also announced flights to Cancun until January 14.
Venezuela’s air activity collapsed as a result of a massive exodus of airlines in 2013, which were unable to repatriate billions of dollars due to strict exchange controls in place at the time.
There are currently nine Venezuelan flag lines operating, although the majority are on charter flights and in the three authorized domestic destinations.
ALAV fears that the state-owned company Conviasa, the only one to cover Bolivia, will build a monopoly. Although he will now share the route to Mexico with Avior and Laser.
Only Turkish Airlines remains of the international, which operates the route to Istanbul. Before the pandemic, there were 10, including several Europeans, as well as the Panamanian Copa, which closed the frequency to Caracas on the orders of his country’s government.
Avior’s permit to fly to Mexico lasts until January 10th and beyond? Maduro showed a radicalization in early 2021 due to the increase in the number of cases.
“I think there is a tendency to close,” said Juan Bracamonte, president of Avior.
– Cooking pilots to survive –
Moving a Venezuelan plane, Figuera noted, costs about $ 3,500 an hour and requires qualified personnel who, like airplanes, remained inactive for months.
In addition to the maintenance team, which did not stop, many pilots, flight attendants and ground crew have unpaid leave or receive less.
Juan José Castro is 53 years old, of whom 30 have been on aircraft. He worked as a pilot for an airline, a cargo plane and today he works in private aviation, stopped and with no prospect of reopening.
“Here it has been a total stop, very abrupt, and it has affected many families,” said Castro, who made sure that his entire circle of friends was stopped just like him.
“It’s one of the years I’ve been on the ground the longest,” added this man at home, where he has exploited his skills as a cook – a hobby until now – to supplement his budget, earn less: he receives half a salary.
He’s selling ham bread, an addition to the Venezuelan Christmas dinner, for $ 15 each, but can’t wait to get back in his Cessna Citation II.
Marián Gabazú, 20, works in a restaurant while the sector is reactivating and can reapply for a flight attendant one year after completing the course at an academy in Caracas.
“I didn’t go beyond filling out the form … but I’m not losing hope.”