Venezuela’s government on Wednesday revoked privileges granted to six airlines, including Spain’s Iberia, for “joining acts of state terrorism promoted by the United States government,” which is how Venezuelan authorities referred to the suspension of flights due to security warnings issued by Washington and other countries such as Spain.
In this way, the Venezuelan National Institute of Civil Navigation (INAC), through a post on its Instagram account, announced the “cancellation of the concession” granted to the airlines Iberia, TAP Air Portugal, Turkish Airlines, Avianca, LATAM Airlines of Colombia and the Brazilian GOL.
The entity justified this action “by acceding to acts of state terrorism promoted by the United States Government, and unilaterally suspending its commercial air operations to and from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, based on a NOTAM (English abbreviation for Notice to Aviation Personnel) issued by the Aviation Authority without jurisdiction in the Maiquetía FIR,” the area of airspace controlling the control tower at Maiquetía Airport, in Caracas.
Last Saturday, the Spanish airline announced the suspension of these operations after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an alert to airlines “to exercise extreme caution when operating” in that region “at all altitudes due to the deteriorating security situation and the increase in military activity in or around Venezuela.”
Along these lines, the Venezuelan Interior Minister, Diosdado Cabello, denounced in his program on the state channel VTV that “the United States issued a notice regarding airspace that includes other countries, not just Venezuela,” while “those airlines continue to fly to other countries without any kind of problems, but they suddenly decided not to fly to Venezuela.”