Lufthansa Halts Caracas Ticket Sales, Joining Other Carriers

[Bacchus4.0]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-17/lufthansa-halts-caracas-ticket-sales-joining-other-carriers-1-.html

Deutsche Lufthansa (LHA) AG suspended ticket sales to Caracas, what one executive called its most profitable Latin American destination, joining airlines that have taken similar actions over Venezuela’s currency controls.

Panama’s Copa Holdings SA said last week it will cut routes to Venezuela, saying it’s owned $488 million by the government. Chief Executive Officer Pedro Heilbron said he wanted to reduce that amount to one “that is totally manageable.”

Airlines had an equivalent of $3.9 billion stuck in bolivars as of April, according to the International Air Transport Association. Those sales in the local currency can’t be repatriated because of a decade-long system of controls. The group said currency restrictions have prompted at least 11 carriers to cut capacity, sales or routes to South America’s largest oil exporter in the past year.

Nils Haupt, a spokesman for Cologne-based Lufthansa, said in an e-mail the suspension is temporary and that flights for those who have tickets already will operate normally. Lufthansa flies between Caracas and Frankfurt five times a week, the company’s only route in the country.

[Marksman_91]

1. Still waiting to see how the Chavistas in this site are gonna try to defend this n/t

[Bacchus4.0]

2. Nothing yet from chavista diarrhea mouths n/t