Venezuela's state owned airline Conviasa has cancelled indefinitely its flights to Madrid and Buenos Aires after Italy's Blue Panorama Airlines terminated its Boeing 767-300 wet lease contract, reportedly over unpaid bills.
The last flight was operated on 16 July. Spanish and Venezuelan media reported that hundreds of Conviasa passengers remain stranded in Madrid more than a week later.
Earlier this week, Conviasa said "the aircraft under contract to operate the route did not comply with the planned itinerary", which had forced the airline to cancel all the flights.
On 28 July, Conviasa reached an agreement with Iberia and Air Europa to transport the Conviasa passengers stranded in Madrid and Caracas, while it operated several relief flights between Caracas and Buenos Aires using its own Embraer 190 aircraft.
Blue Panorama declines to comment, but sources familiar with the situation say that the airline ordered its pilots to return the parked aircraft from Madrid to Italy on 24 July after not receiving outstanding payments from Venezuela.
IATA has warned that Venezuela risks being disconnected from other economies as airlines cut service following difficulties in repatriating revenue from the South American country. Air Canada and Alitalia have already ceased all flights to Venezuela.
During Venezuela president Nicolas Maduro's official visit to France last year, Conviasa committed to acquire three Airbus A330 jets, although this acquisition has not materialised, despite recent announcements of the airline starting flights to Italy to replace the withdrawn Alitalia service.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
