United Airlines to end flights to Venezuela next month

WASHINGTON: United Airlines will end its daily flight service to Venezuela next month, further isolating the crisis-hit South American country from international travel after the exit of many major airlines in recent years.

Many airlines have left after a protracted dispute over billions of dollars they said the government owed them.

They said President Nicolas Maduro’s administration had failed to reimburse companies in hard currency for ticket sales in local currency, as per strict currency controls in the socialist nation.

United, which flies daily between Caracas and Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental

Airport, confirmed that it was halting that route, though said it was not because of any payment dispute.

While the flight is popular with Texas-based oil executives and Venezuelans living in the United States, few tourists travel to the crisis-stricken country and flights often have low occupancy.

“In every market we serve, we continually review demand for service and because our Houston-Caracas service is not meeting our financial expectations, we have decided to suspend it, effective July 1,” United spokesman Charles Hobart said.

In addition to currency disputes and low occupancy on flights to Venezuela, airlines also fret about security for their crews on the ground.

Unrest prompted by food shortages has resulted in the deaths of at least 64 people since April.

United in April added a one-hour stop in the Caribbean island of Aruba to its Houston-to-Caracas leg, a move analysts said was to ensure crews would not have to stay overnight in Venezuela.

Airlines from Lufthansa to Air Canada have pulled out of Venezuela in recent years, citing everything from the payment dispute to safety concerns.

The largest United States carrier in the country, American Airlines slashed 80 per cent of flights in 2014.

Two years later, the Fort Worth-based company wrote off US$592 million (RM2.6 billion) it said was stuck in Venezuela due to the government’s failure to exchange it for hard currency.

The International Air Transport Association said last year that US$3.78 billion was owed to international airlines by Venezuelan authorities. Reuters

In every market we serve, we continually review demand for service and because our Houston-Caracas service is not meeting our financial expectations, we have decided to suspend it, effective July 1. CHARLES HOBART United spokesman