Venezuela extends flight ban

Venezuela extended a ban on most commercial and private flights for at least another 30 days to 12 July to support government efforts to contain the Covid-19 virus.

According to the Civil Aviation Institute (INAC), exceptions include emergency, cargo, humanitarian and repatriation flights.

An official with the Venezuelan commercial airlines association (ALAV) said the extension was "a disappointment but not a surprise."

President Nicolas Maduro first closed the skies to non-essential commercial and private flights on 17 March, shutting foreign carriers out of Venezuela and grounding domestic carriers, including state-owned Conviasa, Laser, Avior, Rutaca and Rutas Aereas de Venezuela.

Maduro ordered the extension after government health authorities detected 164 new Covid-19 infections from 12-14 June that raised total confirmed cases to 2,978 people, according to the information ministry.

The official data is widely considered a vast underestimate.

Up to 80pc of confirmed infections since the government decreed a national lockdown in March were imported from neighboring countries, the health ministry says.