The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has downgraded the safety status of Venezuela, assigning it a Category 2 rating under the International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) program.
The rating shift comes after it was determined that Venezuela’s Civil Aviation Authority is not adequately complying with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) safety standards about regulating and supervising local airlines.
As a result, Venezuelan airlines are banned from adding flights to the United States.
Flights between both countries were prohibited on 1 May by the US Department of Transportation and Homeland Security due to political unrest in the South American country.
In 2017, European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which assesses the safety of airlines individually, prohibited Avior Airlines from operating flights to the EU. The airline remains on the blacklist.
