Avior tries to offload jet to Conviasa

Venezuela's distressed Avior Airlines is trying to erase over $3.5mn in debt to state-owned oil company PdV and other government entities by selling one of its grounded aircraft to national carrier Conviasa.

The debt includes more than $1mn in fuel costs owed to PdV and about $2.5mn in licensing and airport fees owed to the government's civil aviation authority (INAC) and international airport authorities in Caracas and Anzoategui.

Avior's Airbus 340-300 has been parked at the General Jose Antonio Anzoategui international airport near Puerto La Cruz, where the carrier is headquartered, since mid-2018, when passenger traffic between Venezuela and Miami started to dry up. The downturn caused the carrier to lose money on every flight, a senior company official told Argus.

Avior initially offered to sell the Airbus to Conviasa in early 2019 after deciding it could no longer be operated profitably because of a steep decline in passenger and cargo traffic between Venezuela and Miami.

Avior also has offered to sell the Airbus to carriers in Guyana and other countries but no one has shown any interest in buying it.

"We're not interested in flying the Airbus," Avior's corporate communications director Carmen Sofia Lopez said yesterday. "We're desperate for it to be taken because we're not using it."

Avior values the Airbus at $7.9mn but a company official says it needs up to $8mn in major repairs and upgrades.

Conviasa currently owns an Airbus 340-200, but plans to provide non-stop service from Caracas to allied countries such as Iran, Russia, Turkey and China cannot be implemented with only a single aircraft, the company official said.

"We could use another Airbus with the flight range of Avior's 340-300 but the price including debts and repairs is expensive for that type of aircraft, and we also have some doubts as to whether it can be flown non-stop safely to Iran in its current condition," the official added.

Avior's fleet, grounded since President Nicolas Maduro closed Venezuela's skies to all commercial and private flights in mid-March, also includes seven Boeing 737-200s, seven Boeing 737-400s and one Fokker 50.