Conviasa (Consorcio Venezolano de Industrias Aeronáuticas y Servicios Aéreos, S.A.) is an airline with its headquarters on the grounds of Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, Venezuela, near Caracas.^[1] It is the flag carrier and largest airline of Venezuela, operating services to domestic destinations and to destinations in the Caribbean and South America. It plans to add destinations in Europe to its network. Conviasa is the second Latin American airline to fly to Asia, after Aeroméxico. Conviasa is under the authority of the Ministry of Aquatic and Air Transport.^[2] On 3 April 2012, the European Union banned Conviasa flights from its airspace.^[3]

History[link]

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In January 1997, Venezuela's former flag carrier, Viasa, ceased operations after 37 years of service due to prolonged financial problems. In May 2001, the idea to create a new flag carrier for Venezuela was proposed, but in December 2002, the project was put on hold until 1 October 2003. On 30 March 2004, the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, signed a decree that formally established the airline. This decree was published in the nation's official gazette the next day.

On 28 November 2004, Conviasa's inaugural flight was made with a De Havilland Canada Dash 7 aircraft flying from the airport in Charallave to the Santiago Mariño International Airport, on Margarita Island. On 10 December 2004, Conviasa formally began its national and international operations. Conviasa was originally run by the now defunct Ministry of Production and Commerce (Ministerio de la Producción y el Comercio), but it has since been taken over by the Ministry of Infrastructure.^[4]

On 17 April 2006, José David Cabello Rondon replaced Wilmer Castro Sotelo as head of Conviasa. On 30 June 2006, Jose David Cabello Rondon replaced Ramon Alonzo Carrizalez Rengifo as the Minister of Infrastructure and on 18 July 2006, Franklin Fernandez Martinez became president of Conviasa.

The airline is owned by the Venezuelan government (80%) and the regional government of Nueva Esparta (20%).

Following the Flight 2350 crash, on September 17, 2010, the government of Venezuela grounded all Conviasa flights so that it could perform a technical review of the airline's fleet. The airline said that the temporary suspension would remain in effect until October 1, 2010. Flights have since been re-instated.

Decree No. 7838 of the Official Gazette No. 39,558 published on Wednesday, provides for the appointment of Colonel citizen (AVB) Jesús Rafael Viñas García, President of the Venezuelan Consortium Trading Company Aircraft Industries and Air Services SA (CONVIASA) under the Ministry of Popular Power for Transportation and Communications.

On April 2012, Conviasa has been banned from flying to countries in the European Union because of safety concerns.It said that Conviasa failed to show it had taken adequate steps to prevent future accidents.^[5]

Conviasa was under the authority of the Ministry of Transport and Communications.^[6]

Destinations[link]

Conviasa operates the following services (as of 22 November 2011 (2011 -11-22)^[update]):

Conviasa 737-200

• Argentina
  • Buenos Aires - Ezeiza Airport
• Colombia
  • Bogota - El Dorado International Airport
• Cuba
  • Havana - José Martí International Airport
• Dominica
  • Melville Hall Airport
• Grenada
  • Maurice Bishop International Airport
• Spain
  • Madrid - Barajas Airport (operated by SBA Airlines)
• Syria
  • Damascus - Damascus International Airport [Resumes August 12, 2012]
• Trinidad and Tobago
  • Port of Spain - Piarco International Airport
• Venezuela
  • Barcelona - Generál José Antonio Anzoátegui International Airport
  • Barinas - Barinas Airport
  • Caracas - Simón Bolívar International Airport Hub
  • Coro - José Leonardo Chirinos Airport
  • La Fria - La Fria Airport
  • Las Piedras - Josefa Camejo International Airport
  • Maracaibo - La Chinita International Airport
  • Maturín - Maturín Airport
  • Mérida - Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso Airport
  • Porlamar - Del Caribe International General Santiago Marino Airport
  • Puerto Ayacucho - Cacique Aramare Airport
  • Puerto Ordaz - Manuel Carlos Piar Guayana Airport
  • Santo Domingo - Mayor Buenaventura Vivas Airport
  • Valera - Dr. Antonio Nicolás Briceno Airport

Terminated[link]

• Iran - Tehran

Codeshare agreements[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Conviasa codeshares with the following airlines:

• Aeroflot
• Cubana
• Iran Air
• Satena
• Aerolineas Argentinas

Fleet[link]

The Conviasa fleet^{[7][8][9][10][11]}includes the following aircraft:

Conviasa 737-300 taking off

Conviasa received their Airbus A340-200 on 11 May 2006 for its Madrid route from Air Europa, but the plane remained unused; then it operated Damascus and Buenos Aires flights.

The average age of Conviasa's fleet is 19.8 years.^[13][14]

Note: 1 ATR-42, 1 ATR-72, 1 Boeing's 737-300 have been out of service for longer than a year.

The A340-500 were confirmed by President Hugo Chavez.

Incidents and accidents[link]

• On 15 December 2005, Conviasa flight 2600, a De Havilland Canada Dash 7 with 36 passengers and 4 crew members on board, was forced to make a belly landing at Porlamar's airport when the landing gear failed to deploy. After circling Porlamar for an hour and a half to burn off fuel, the aircraft touched down without any injuries.^[15][16]

• On 30 August 2008, a Boeing 737-200 took off from Caracas's Maiquetia airport, Venezuela, and was bound to Latacunga, Ecuador, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Quito. Three crew members (a captain, a first officer and a mechanic) were onboard. The plane crashed in mountainous area in Ecuador’s Andes, killing all the three people onboard. The Boeing 737 had been stored for a while at Caracas. It was being ferried to Latacunga, reportedly underway to a new owner.

• On 13 September 2010, Flight 2350, an ATR 42-300 (registration YV1010), with 47 passengers and 4 crew on board, crashed shortly before landing. It was a domestic scheduled passenger flight from Del Caribe "Santiago Mariño" International Airport, Porlamar, Isla Margarita to Manuel Carlos Piar Guayana Airport, Ciudad Guayana.^[17][18] There were 34 survivors and 17 fatalities.^[19]

Headquarters[link]

Conviasa has its headquarters on the grounds of Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, Venezuela, near Caracas.^[20][21]

Originally Conviasa had its headquarters on Margarita Island.^[22] At one time Conviasa had its headquarters in the East Tower of Parque Central in Caracas.^[23]

Statistics[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

• Between 10 December 2004 and 26 March 2006, 324,671 people have flown on Conviasa (252,896 domestically and 71,775 internationally).
• Conviasa flies over 23,740 seats worldwide per week.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Conviasa

	Venezuela portal
	Companies portal
	Aviation portal

• (Spanish) Conviasa
• (Spanish) Part one of the decree that created Conviasa
• (Spanish) Part two of the decree that created Conviasa
• (English) Conviasa (Archive)
• (English) Conviasa (Archive 2)

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