Two airlines have adjusted their operation to Caracas, Venezuela, as the US evaluates military action in the country. The current security situation has led TAP Air Portugal to make adjustments to its Caracas operation, which consists of a twice-weekly direct flight from Lisbon. Instead, it will divert its route via Point-à-Pitre until February. This is to avoid its crew staying overnight in the Venezuelan city.

The Portuguese flag carrier is not the only airline to make adjustments. Gol Linhas Aéreas has modified its nonstop São Paulo connection, adding a technical stop in Manaus in Northern Brazil for the same purpose. It resumed flights to the country at the start of August this year after a nine year hiatus with four weekly services.

Security concerns require adjustments for crew

On Saturday, sources informed Reuters that the US government had held three homeland security council meetings this week to evaluate possible military action against Venezuela. The White House has also recently expanded its military presence in Latin America. On Friday, Trump informed reporters that he had “sort of made up my mind” on Venezuela though did not comment further.

Rather than allowing crews to spend the night in Caracas, both TAP and Gol have added technical stops to ensure staff safety. It also means that once the crews have changed in the respective cities, the aircraft can depart for Venezuela. TAP’s flights now operate following a Lisbon to Point-à-Pitre to Caracas to Lisbon routing, while Gol operates from São Paulo to Manaus, onwards to Caracas and nonstop back to São Paulo.

Unsurprisingly, the legs from Point-à-Pitre for TAP and Manaus for Gol are not bookable. The Brazilian carrier already flies to Manaus in any case with existing connections to places including São Paulo.

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When Gol resumed flights earlier this year, it launched a roundtrip connection from São Paulo. Previously, it had operated flights between São Paulo and Aruba, routing via Caracas. In other words, the crew likely spent the night in Aruba though this is not immediately clear.

This year, before resuming flights to the capital, the carrier warned its staff to take extra caution given high crime rates and political instability in the country.

Could other international airlines follow?

Instability almost always impacts demand. Iberia has already reduced its services between Madrid and Caracas for the coming months, according to information from aviation analytics firm Cirium.

It has removed one weekly flight in February and March, most likely in response to actual or expected lower forward bookings for its flights to Venezuela. It will now fly four times per week from Madrid during those months. Five weekly flights are currently scheduled to resume from April. Iberia uses a mix of Airbus A330-200 and -300 equipment on the sector.

Other international airlines also fly to Caracas, though. Most notably, Turkish Airlines flies daily from Istanbul – Venezuela’s longest flight. Four of its seven weekly flights route via Havana, Cuba.

No other carriers have made any changes just yet. However, as uncertainty continues to weigh over the situation in Venezuela, additional adjustments are very much likely.

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