U.S.
Air Agency may visit Venezuela to settle dispute
Bloomberg
CARACAS
Petroleumworld.com
03 15 06
The
U.S. Federal Aviation Administration may visit Venezuela next
month to inspect airports and airlines, in a bid to end a dispute
that threatens to reduce flights between the countries.
U.S.
Ambassador to Venezuela William Brownfield said in a televised
press conference that the FAA may visit the week of April 17,
pending approval by the Venezuelan air regulator, known as INAC.
The date of the suggested meeting was proposed after informal
talks, Brownfield said.
``Our
expectation is that if INAC accepts the date, they will then suspend
their threat to end flights by U.S. carriers,'' Brownfield said.
Brownfield warned that any Venezuelan move to end or reduce flights
by U.S. carriers would be met in kind. ``And if that happens,
neither Venezuela nor the U.S. wins,'' he said.
Venezuela
last month threatened to end flights by Delta Air Lines Inc. and
Continental Airlines Inc, while reducing those by AMR Corp.'s
American Airlines by 70 percent, unless the FAA changes the country's
Category 2 rating by March 30. The rating means that the country's
airlines can't add flights to the U.S.
Calls
to INAC spokeswoman Gladys Herrera weren't answered. Venezuela
was downgraded to Category 2 in 1995 over concerns about the safety
of its airports and airlines.
U.S.
Threats
``If
INAC cuts flights, it's not a possibility, it's not a probability,
it's a certainty the U.S. government and the Transportation Department
will suspend flights by Venezuelan carriers to the U.S.,'' Brownfield
said.
Relations
between the two countries have cooled since President Hugo Chavez
took office in February 1999. Chavez, an ally of Fidel Castro,
poses a threat to regional stability, according to officials such
as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who told Congress on Feb.
16 the U.S. is urging U.S. allies to form a ``united front'' against
Venezuela. Chavez, 51, often says in speeches the U.S. is plotting
to assassinate him.
The
three U.S. airlines have a daily capacity of about 3,000 seats
on their U.S.-Venezuela routes, company officials said.
Fort
Worth, Texas-based American has four daily flights between Miami
and Caracas, one flight a day between San Juan, Puerto Rico, and
Caracas; five weekly flights between Dallas-Fort Worth and Caracas;
two weekly flights between New York's John F. Kennedy International
Airport and Caracas and one daily flight between Miami and Maracaibo.
Delta
flies daily between Caracas and Atlanta. Continental flies daily
between Caracas and Houston, and once a week between Caracas and
Newark.
In
addition to U.S. carriers, Venezuelan airlines Aeropostal Alas
de Venezuela and Santa Barbara Airlines serve U.S. routes from
Venezuela. Lan Airlines also flies between Miami and Caracas.
To
contact the reporter on this story:
Peter Wilson in Caracas pewilson@bloomberg.net
Bloomber News 03 14 06
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