Venezuela air travel moves to US dollars

Venezuela's air transportation sector has been operating on the basis of US dollars since mid-2014, allowing foreign carriers to sustain profits and even increase the frequency of some routes despite a longstanding impasse with the government over trapped revenue. About 23 foreign carriers still have a combined $3.7bn of locally generated revenues trapped in Venezuela, compared with almost $4.3bn in June 2014, the local commercial airlines association (Alav) tells Argus. The $600mn reduction in trapped revenues over the past year reflects partial payments by the government to several smaller carriers. It's unlikely the government and airlines will make progress this year lowering the amount given Venezuela's worsening economic crisis, now in its third consecutive year with triple-digit inflation and an imploding currency. More…