The Panamanian government has responded to Venezuela’s prohibition to prohibit Copa Airlines from serving destinations in the South American country by banning all Venezuelan airlines from serving Panama.
According to the governmental decree, Conviasa, Aeropostal, Avior, Laser, Ravsa, Santa Barbara Airlines (SBA) and Turpial Airlines will no longer be allowed to operate passenger or cargo flights to Panama, effective 25 April.
Most of the airlines mentioned do not fly to Panama or are grounded, which is the case of SBA. Currently only state-owned Conviasa and privately owned Laser are serving the route between Caracas and Panama City with seven and six weekly flights, respectively.
This decision isolates Venezuela even further from the rest of Latin America and eliminates one of the last sources of foreign currency income for both airlines, which struggle to keep their aircraft flying because of the lack of available spare parts.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
