Alex Vasquez, Nicolle Yapur
Last year may have been the worst in the history of the global aviation industry but for Nicolas Maduro’s ragtag Venezuelan airline, business boomed.
Conviasa, as the state-run airline is known, says that its operations jumped 85% in 2020, making it one of the few carriers in the world to post any growth after the pandemic wiped out air travel.
The airline, which is banned from flying to the U.S. as part of that country’s wide-ranging sanctions against the Maduro regime, now has regular flights to five countries. Three of them are led by Maduro’s political allies — Bolivia, Iran and Mexico — and there are plans to add a Moscow connection soon. Conviasa also now services high-demand routes to Panama and the Dominican Republic, which act as key transit hubs for Venezuelans.
While airlines in the U.S. and Europe have received billions of dollars in government bailouts to weather the coronavirus pandemic, Conviasa has gotten state support of a different kind. Competition has been quashed with permits delayed or last minute hurdles put up against carriers including Copa Holdings.
The secret to its relative success isn’t hard to find. Keen on propping up state enterprises that can bring much needed hard currency revenue to a battered regime, President Maduro has allowed Conviasa to charge in dollars and at exorbitant rates for destinations such as Toluca, Mexico, or Viru Viru, Bolivia.
“If Conviasa has grown, that’s great, but Venezuelan air operations shouldn’t depend on a single airline, a single interest, that’s dangerous, it’s not right,” said Reinaldo Pulido, vice president of tourism association Conseturismo. “You make a country of 30 million people dependent on a single company.”
The airline, now run by Ramon Velasquez, a former soldier who also ran the Ministry of Eco-Socialism and Water, saw its operations nearly double last year, according to a company statement….