Given the revocation of licenses to six airlines announced by the National Institute of Civil Aeronautics (Inac), for “joining the actions of State terrorism promoted by the US government”, the president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, spoke out and stated that he hopes that the decision “is not final.”
In a meeting with journalists, Rebelo said that he hopes that it is not a final decision by the national authorities, “since they know how important the Portuguese community is for us, how important it is for relations between Portugal and Venezuela, and they know that the Portuguese community has a great connection with TAP.”
Along the same lines, the Head of State of Portugal asserted that “there is the same concern, thinking about the Portuguese community, about the announcement that was published, but I hope it is not a definitive decision by the Venezuelan authorities.”
He stressed that there is “a very strong Portuguese community in Venezuela”, which is why he reaffirmed his concern, because all this could affect these groups from Portugal that reside in Venezuelan territory.
It should be noted that the Association of International Air Transport (IATA)which includes more than 300 airlines around the world, asked the Venezuelan authorities this Thursday to “reconsider” their revocation of flight concession to six airlines that had suspended their flights to the country after a security alert issued by the United States.
The measure affects Iberia (Spain), TAP (Portugal), Avianca (Colombia), Latam (Colombian subsidiary), GOL (Brazil) and Turkish Airlines (Turkey), companies that interrupted their operations due to warnings from Washington about military activity in the southern Caribbean.
