Conviasa, Venezuela’s state-owned airline, announced on Friday that it will fly to Damascus, capital of Syria, from Caracas.
The information was given through the company’s social networks, where they published that «soon we will have a new destination to the Middle East, we are going to Damascus«, without including details of dates or frequencies.
Dubious history of flights to Syria
If the operation finally materialises, it will not be the first time that Conviasa reaches Damascus with regular passenger flights, given that in 2012 it also inaugurated the also politically eye-catching Caracas – Damascus – Tehran route, although it did not prosper beyond the inaugural flight after a very low load factor of 20%, according to sources close to the matter.
Tehran returned to the Conviasa network in June 2022, representing the Iranian capital’s only non-stop route to the Americas. Two flights are scheduled for March 11 and 25.
The last time Conviasa announced the return of flights between Caracas and Damascus was in January 2020, with the inaugural flight scheduled for March. All this was put on hold after the outbreak of the pandemic.
Conviasa’s international flights
In addition to Tehran, Conviasa’s international network scheduled for March also includes flights linking Caracas with Havana (Cuba), Lima (Perú), Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia), Mexico City (AIFA), Cancun (Mexico), Kingstown (Jamaica), Manaus (Brazil) and Moscow (Russia). It also flies between Manaus and Puerto Ordaz, Las Piedras and Havana, and Havana and Managua (Nicaragua).
Its fleet of wide-body aircraft consists of one Airbus A340-300 and two A340-600s.
