ANOTHER AIRLINE DROPS VENEZUELA IN FLIGHT ROUTES

WASHINGTON— United Airlines will end its daily flight service to Venezuela in July, further isolating the crisishit 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 owes them.

They said President Nicolas Maduro’s administration had failed to reimburse companies in hard currency for ticket sales in local currency.

United, which flies daily between Caracas and Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, confirmed it was halting that route.

While the flight is popular with Texas-based oil executives and Venezuelans living in the United States, few tourists travel to the crisisstricken 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 spokesperson Charles Hobart said in an e-mail.