Venezuelan aviation update

[luisde8cd]

Hey all,

LanPeru began service to CCS from LIM a month ago. They are flying 4 times a week with LanChile's A320s. They are the second carrier flying non-stop to Lima, before they started the route, Taca was the only one flying non stop. Taca operates 10X weekly with A320s. Aeropostal (DC9)operates via Guayaquil, Santa Barbara (B727) via Quito and Aerocontinente (B767) via Bogotá.

Air Canada will begin YYZ-CCS-YYZ service in summer using an A319. Will be 4X weekly. They used to fly L1011s back in the 80s on the YYZ-CCS-PMV (margarita island)-YYZ.

American upgraded it's San Juan daily service from B738 to B757.

Aerol'neas Argentinas will stop flying EZE-Viru Viru-CCS with MD88s and will start flying EZE-BOG-CCS-EZE and EZE-CCS-BOG-EZE with A310s.

Avior bought some old B732s and are using them on high-density domestic routes and on charters to Punta Cana. They also began flying CCS-Ft de France 3X a week on EMB-120s.

During summer Santa Barbara will be offering seasonal service nonstop from CCS to Santiago de Compostela, Spain with their DC10s.

On the colombian aviation update thread I read that Fenix and Aerorepublica will add some competition on the BOG-CCS-BOG route.

Varig restarted Rio-Manaus-Caracas 1X a week on a 737 and upgraded GRU-GIG-CCS from a 737 back to a 767 as it had always been.

Believe it or not, Aeropostal retired one of their B727s that was used on the CCS-BOG-QUI route and replaced it with a MD-83 recently adquired from Aeromexico.

Maiquet'a Airport (CCS) is changing its runways number designations. Rwy 09/27 will become 10/28 and Rwy 08/26 will become 09/27. This has to do with the fact that the magnetic orientation of the runways have changed during the years. The ILS course on runway 09 started at 093 and currently it is 097.

Any comments will be appreciated! thx

[xdc9er]

Hi, just wondering what ever happened to Simeon Garcia/Aserca , He had an aviation interest based in Aruba/FQ, that went bankrupt, some of the Aserca training pilots flew there as well, all excellent pilots.

[Panama Jack]

Air Canada will begin YYZ-CCS-YYZ service in summer using an A319

Hopefully-- if it will still be around by then!!!

Thanks for the update-- very interesting!

BTW, what does "8cd" in your name mean?

[luisde8cd]

xdc9er,

Aserca right now isn't in good shape. They are struggling to keep flying internationally to Aruba and Santo Domingo, Dom. Rep. and have reduced frecuencies to 2X weekly. They stopped flying scheduled to Punta Cana, now they only run charters.

They still keep a large share in the domestic market and I think that's where their cash cow is right now.

Back to the Air Aruba thing... yes Aserca bought Air Aruba sometime around 1997-1999 (I'm not sure). By the time of the purchase, Air Aruba was operating a couple of MD90s leased from a Taiwanese aircraft leasing company. Aserca painted one or two of air aruba's MD90s with their livery and planned to fly to Miami from Venezuela's 5 most important cities (Caracas, Maracaibo, Valencia, Barquisimeto and Puerto Ordaz). I was told these MD90s were leased on B757s rates and they were making aserca and air aruba lose lots of money, but they were stuck in a multi-year contract and couldn't bail out. At the end, air aruba went bankrupt and aserca is still struggling to survive and had to slash their CCS-MIA service that was run on leased taca B732s. Right now they keep their old and trusty DC9-32s flying over Venezuelan skies all day long.

I had the chance to fly Aserca to Aruba from Caracas and back in 2001 and the whole plane was configured in a single business class. Very confortable leather seats in a 2-2 configuration. Plane was 90% full both ways.

Panama Jack,
8cd means 8th grade "cd" section. I created my [email protected] email account back then when I was in school and there weren't many usernames available which included Luis. So I invented that one up;)

[antiicing]

Ive seen the Santa Barbara Cessna Caravan's flying from LSP to AUA regulary, like 3 or 4 times a day!!!!!!!
A couple of years ago they tried to start the same operation with the caravans when they bring them brand new, and the Aurban Authorities sayd no, based on the laws!!!!
and now their flying?????
I dont get it.........
is it safe........dont think so............... with only 1 engine!!!!!!
:{
maybe the laws or regulations changed......naaahhh dont think so
who knows man!!!!!!

:mad:

[luisde8cd]

yet another update.

Reading sunday's newspaper I found an Air Canada ad, promoting it's new flight to Toronto. Fare is 510$ round trip.

Varig stopped operating the B767 in the GRU-GIG-CCS-GIG-GRU route and is now using an MD-11!. Finally a MD-11 returns to Venezuela, the last carrier operating a MD11 to Venezuela was KLM, but they replaced it with a B763.

Air Europa will start scheduled service from Santiago de Compostela, Spain to CCS. It'll start in summer and will be only 1 weekly flight. They expect to attract pax that have relatives living in La Coruña region in Spain and also northern Portugal. They will offer ground transportation to Porto, Portugal from Santiago de Compostela for a "very low price".

Lufhtansa is adjusting its schedule so that more pax will be able to connect in CCS to fly to Frankfurt or for pax that are coming from Europe to Central and South America.

[Panama Jack]

Lufhtansa is adjusting its schedule so that more pax will be able to connect in CCS to fly to Frankfurt or for pax that are coming from Europe to Central and South America.

This is good,

I am a frequent flyer with Lufthansa and until now, have always had to go throught the US, despite the hassels of doing so (long immigrations lines, etc). However until now CCS and MEX have not been viable options due to bad connections times to C.A.

[Bananasair]

Santa Barbara has just announced it will begin twice daily service between Caracs and Miami. Services will start in July 8th. There will be an early morning departure from Caracas (6:30 a.m) and another at 15:35, the latter in order to conect with heir flights to QUito and Lima.

Best regards.

[luisde8cd]

hey bananasair, great news! you are correct. I just checked Santa Barbara's website and they are announcing the Miami flight!

It'll be twice daily as you previously said and will be operated by B752s in a 2 class configuration (12 business and 184 coach). The question now is, what company did they wet-lease the 757s from? Transmeridian? if that's the case those 757s could be the ones leased by Air Santo Domingo, which is now pulling out from MIA.

[AIRWAY]

They will offer ground transportation to Porto, Portugal from Santiago de Compostela for a "very low price".


Air Portugal already flies to CCS, i think this is a better option for those passengers.

[luisde8cd]

Yes TAP flies to CCS... but it's only nonstop service to mainland portugal is only once a week. The other 2 flights stop in Funchal-Madeira Islands. It's just another option for pax going to northern portugal.

By the way... the Varig MD-11 flight from GRU, will continue to Aruba. Varig has been granted 5th freedom rights between CCS and Aruba. They are offering one way CCS-AUA for 200,000 Bolivares, that's about 100$ at the official currency rate (which is not the real one) the real cost in $ would be about 65$. Service to Aruba will begin in early July and will be once a week on tuesdays.

About the Lufthansa flight re-schedule... The CCS-FRA flight will now depart at 16:35 daily. Taca's A320 from Costa Rica arrives at 15:35 and the earliest Copa flight arrives at 14:15. That will be good for Central America pax that want to avoid getting a U.S. visa to fly to Europe. South america flights: Sta Barbara's B727 from Lima-Quito arrives at 14:45. LAB's B727 from Santa Cruz-Manaus arrives at 14:20. Aerocontinente's B767 from Lima-Bogota arrives at 15:15. Taca's A320s from Lima arrive at 15:50 and 15:30. Finally Aeropostal's from Lima-Guayaquil and Quito-Bogota arrive at 11:00. Lufthansa is now attracting more pax from Central and South America with its new schedule, hope they can fill those A340s!

[Panama Jack]

Do you know the scheduled arrival time for Lufthansa's FRA-CCS flight? Is it 7 days a week?

[luisde8cd]

LH 534 arrives at 14:30. Service is daily except wednesdays

[antiicing]

Santa Barbara returned yet another ATR, It was seen yesterday in Brazil before crossing the Atlantic bounded to Cape Verde, this time YV1019C, looks like things are not going quite well over there, last year they returned their 1st 2 out of 8 ATR, now it's down to 5
farewell 19charlie
flew you a lot
:ok: