Venezuela’s airport ‘breathing’ tax

By Daniel Pardo From BBC Trending

Passengers at Maiquetia International Airport “That will be $20 ‘breathing’ tax please”

The biggest international airport in Venezuela is charging a fee for the right to inhale clean air – and social media users are not happy.

We’re used to a seemingly endless range of taxes and surcharges when we fly – passenger taxes, departure taxes, fuel levies. But Maiquetia International Airport in Caracas has taken this a step further – passengers flying out now have to pay 127 bolivars tax (£12; $20) for the air they breathe.

This is to cover the cost of a newly-installed system which uses ozone to purify the building’s air conditioning system. A press release from the Ministry of Water and Air Transport says it’s the first airport in South America and the Caribbean to use the technology, which it claims will eliminate bacterial growth to “protect the health of travellers,” as well as deodorizing and sanitising the building.

But with tickets out of the country already expensive and scarce because of Venezuela’s economic crisis, many on social media have responded to the tax with both humour and outrage.

Radio presenter Daniel Martínez tweeted: “Could you explain to me the ozone thing in Maiquetia? The toilets don’t have water, the air-con is broken, there are stray dogs inside the airport, but there’s ozone?”

“Soon we will be charged for the ‘good gas'” was another tweet – a rueful reference to the tear gas that the police often use on opposition protesters. The satirical news blog El Chiguire Bipolar ran the headline: “Maiquetia Airport unveils robot that puts you upside-down and takes your money.”

Some Venezuelans on social media fear the tax could end up being a new source of corruption. Others see it as evidence of how short of cash the airport is. Most international airlines have reduced the number of flights to the country because of a financial dispute with the Venezuelan government.

Depending who you ask, the tax is funny, infuriating, or just one more surreal aspect of a country that has the biggest oil reserves in the world, yet at the same time has shortages of toilet paper and sugar.

IMAGE: A screengrab of the headline and picture about the “breathing” tax on El Chiguire Bipolar

For more on this story go to: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-28227198

IMAGE: Maiquetia International Airport in Caracas. Photo: Wikimedia

Venezuela’s airlift woes deepen as United Airlines cuts flights

From National News Agency of Malaysia

CARACAS, July 14 (BERNAMA-NNN-CARIBBEANNEWS) — United Airlines became the last of the three largest US carriers to cut flights to Venezuela in a dispute with the government over cash trapped in the country.

Service will be reduced to four round trips a week from the current daily flights, a 43 percent reduction, effective Sept 17, United said.

Earlier this month Delta Air Lines announced that the airline is reducing service by 85 percent, replacing its daily roundtrip flight between Atlanta and Caracas with one roundtrip weekend flight as of Aug 1.

Frustrated over the continued non-payment of some $750 million owed to it by Venezuela through March 31, American Airlines has also cut its weekly flights to the destination to ten, down from 48 previously.

Other international and regional airlines have taken similar action.

Italian airline Alitalia announced in May that it was suspending all flights to Venezuela “due to the ongoing critical currency situation” in the country, “which is “no longer economically sustainable.”

The decision by Alitalia followed a similar suspension in late March of all flights to Venezuela by Air Canada and a number of regional airlines have reduced the frequency of flights.

Colombia’s Avianca has reduced itineraries by more than two-thirds. Other airlines represented by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) are considering suspending all flights to Venezuela.

Lufthansa said the Venezuelan problem had cost it �60 million ($81.2 million) and contributed to the airline’s profit warning.

The German carrier also suspended ticket sales in the country for several days last month and will reduce its Frankfurt-Caracas service to three weekly flights from daily beginning this month,

“The airlines get to a point where they want to serve the country and they want to serve the Venezuelan people,” said IATA spokesman Jason Sinclair.

“But they’re owed so much money, it just becomes not viable to operate in Venezuela.”

The Venezuelan government and a half-dozen, mostly smaller airlines in the region agreed last month to terms on repayments. The deal reduced the outstanding debt owed to the airlines by about $200 million, Sinclair said.

One of the airlines finally receiving payment from CADIVI, the Venezuelan foreign exchange authority, was Curacao airline InselAir, which was reported to have been paid a large part of its outstanding debt of $75 million.

The exact amount is not known, but it is said to be about three-quarters of the total outstanding debt.

According to the Association of Venezuela Airlines (ALAV), out a total of 25 international airlines operating to and from Venezuela, 16 have not yet signed a payment agreement with the government, through the aeronautical authorities.

Those companies that are still waiting for an agreement are Air Canada, Air France, Alitalia, American Airlines, Avianca, Caribbean Airlines, Copa Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Federal Express, Iberia, LACSA, LAN Airlines, Lufthansa, TACA, TAP Air Portugal and United Airlines.

ALAV indicated that the cumulative amount owed as of December 2013 is $3.4 billion.

Most of the major international airlines flying to Venezuela have declined the government’s offers because they include significant discounts on the principal amounts and have long repayment schedules.

“The terms were very complicated, and the offers that were made to different airlines were very different,” Sinclair said. “The discounts were arbitrary. There wasn’t a calculation to them that we saw.”

For more on this story go to: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v7/wn/newsworld.php?id=1053429