Delta says Venezuela tells Delta to reduce flight numbers

Venezuela limits U.S. airlines' access in aviation dispute
CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuela is reducing flights by U.S. carriers Delta Air Lines Continental Airlines and American Airlines in response to a failure by U.S. authorities to give equal access for its carriers in the United States, officials and local industry groups said Friday.
The decision was the latest turbulence between oil-rich Venezuela and the United States, its biggest oil client. Their governments have been at loggerheads since populist, leftist Hugo Chavez was elected Venezuelan president in 1998 and struck up close relations with Cuba.

Francisco Paz, president of the National Civil Aviation Institute (INAC), said Thursday the action was taken because the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration had established a similar ban on some Venezuelan carriers serving routes to the United States 10 years ago due to safety violations. Venezuela said the U.S. has failed to recognize improvements since then.

Venezuela's new restriction is to take effect March 1.

The measure apparently was taken in reprisal of a 1995 decision by the Federal Aviation Administration to downgrade Venezuela to a category two country because of security concerns, a move that ended most U.S.-bound flights by Venezuelan carriers.

In Washington, Deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli called Venezuela's decision "unjustified" and in violation of a 1953 bilateral air transport services accord.

He said U.S. officials were touch with domestic arriers and President Chavez to try to head off another showdown between the two countries.

The statement, dated Feb. 22 and published on INAC's website, did not specify which airlines would be subject to the new rules, but Venezuelan media reported Friday that it would affect American, Continental and Delta.

The institute reportedly informed Continental and Delta their services would be suspended, while the number of American's flights would be reduced.

Delta has a daily flight to Atlanta and Continental has a daily flight to Houston a weekly flight to Newark, N.J.

American service to Venezuela will be slashed by 70%, according to the newspaper El Universal. The airline has daily flights to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Miami. On a weekly basis, it has five flights to Dallas-Fort Worth and two to New York.

The institute said the decision was based on "the principles of fairness, reciprocity and fair opportunity that must exist between the two countries," as prescribed by an accord between the United States and Venezuela.

INAC directors were meeting Friday with representatives of the airlines affected by the measure.

"We are very disappointed by this unilateral action by the Venezuelan government and we are working closely with the U.S. departments of State and Transportation, as well as the airlines who received similar notice, to resolve the issue as quickly as possible," said Gina Laughlin, a spokeswoman for Delta told The Associated Press.

Dan Elwell, spokesman for Fort Worth-based American, told AP it that the airline was surprised by the announcement. "American Airlines had no warning of this announcement at all," Elwell said, adding that Venezuela is a very important market to the United States.

INAC said that it had "exhausted every possible conciliatory options with U.S. aviation authorities" in an attempt to "restore the rights accorded to Venezuelan airlines by a bilateral accord".

The two Venezuelan airlines that offer international service, Santa Barbara and Aeropostal, have flights to Miami.

"Aeropostal — the bigger of the two — unconditionally supports the position taken by the national executive," Aeropostal president Nelson Ramiz said in a statement.

Ramiz said the U.S. 1995 decision to reclassify Venezuela "violates the principle of equality of conditions that should be paramount in any bilateral accord between countries."

The INAC curtailment "should remain in effect until Venezuela is lifted to a category one or until Venezuelan airlines are allowed to operate with the same flexibility as U.S. carriers," he said.

The Venezuelan airline industry group CEVETA also backed the decision.

"We are showing solidarity with the move, which has no political motive attached, but it is aimed at finding a balance in aeronautic relations since the unilateral (U.S.) move in 1995," said CEVETA executive director Jorge Alvarez.

State Department spokesman Ereli told reporters that the United States was working with Venezualans "to get them to respect the (1953) agreement, because it (the decision to reduce U.S. fights) is unilateral, it's unjustified, it's unwarranted.

INAC recalled that it had undertaken a revamping of the aeronautic sector which was certified by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in June 2004.

Venezuela has an 89% compliance rate with ICAO criteria — similar to other countries — "confirming that we possess the required capacity and conditions to meet international standards," the institute said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.