The Panamanian flag airline Copa Airlines reported this Saturday that its “flight operations over Venezuelan airspace remain open,” although it does so “with high levels of alert and caution, only during daylight hours.”
“Copa Airlines is also in permanent communication with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has reiterated that it has not modified its official alert level or regulatory position,” the airline said in a statement, in which it recommended “passengers with flights to and from Caracas stay informed through the company’s official channels.”
Copa confirmed its operations to Venezuela after this Saturday the US president, Donald Trump, warned in a message through his social network Truth that airlines and pilots should take into account that the country’s airspace “will remain closed in its entirety.”
“To all airlines, pilots, drug traffickers and human traffickers: we ask you to consider that the airspace over Venezuela and its surroundings will remain completely closed. Thank you for your attention! President Donald J. Trump,” reads the president’s message, which does not clarify any circumstances related to the closure, at a time of high tension between the two countries.
The Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Yván Gil called Trump’s statements “colonial pretensions” in a statement published on Telegram in which he also called them a “hostile, unilateral and arbitrary act.”
Copa maintains flights to Venezuela despite warnings from the United States
The company is one of the international airlines that still maintains the Venezuelan route after on November 21 the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) urged “extreme caution” when flying over Venezuela and the southern Caribbean in the face of what it considers “a potentially dangerous situation” in the area.
The Trump government maintains an unprecedented military deployment in the southern Caribbean as part of a renewed fight against drug trafficking that targets Nicolás Maduro, for whom the US offers a $50 million reward under the accusation of being “the leader of the narcoterrorist organization Cartel de Los Soles” and “responsible for drug trafficking to the United States and Europe.”
In this context, the Venezuelan authorities announced the revocation of permits for Iberia, TAP, Turkish Airlines, Avianca, Latam Colombia and Gol, which temporarily suspended flights to Venezuela citing security reasons.
In addition to Copa, this Saturday the Colombian low-cost airline Wingo also confirmed that it was maintaining its operations to Venezuela.
Until Friday, the Colombian airline Satena and Boliviana de Aviación also did so, in addition to the Venezuelan airlines Conviasa, Rutaca, Laser and Estelar, with international trips.
