Conviasa

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Consorcio Venezolano de Industrias Aeronáuticas y Servicios Aéreos

IATA V0	ICAO VCV	Callsign Conviasa
Founded		March 31, 2004
Hubs		Santiago Mariño International Airport
Focus cities		Simón Bolívar International Airport
Frequent flyer program		Infinito
Fleet size		14
Destinations		20
Parent company		Venezuelan Ministry of Infrastructure
Company slogan		El placer de volar (the pleasure of flying)
Headquarters		Porlamar, Nueva Esparta, Venezuela
Key people		Jose David Cabello Rondon, Minister of Infrastructure Franklin Fernandez Martinez, President Conviasa Pedro Saavedra, Vice-President Conviasa
Website: Conviasa

Conviasa (Consorcio Venezolano de Industrias Aeronáuticas y Servicios Aéreos) is a state-owned airline based in Caracas, Venezuela. It operates services to domestic destinations and to destinations in the Caribbean and South America. It plans to add destinations in Europe to its network. Its main base is Simón Bolívar International Airport, Caracas^[1].

1 History
2 Destinations
3 Code Share
4 Fleet
5 Incidents and accidents
6 Statistics
7 External links
8 References

[edit] History

^{[citation needed]}

In January 1997, Venezuela's flag carrier, Viasa ceased operations after 37 years of service due to prolonged financial problems. In May 2001, the idea to create a new flag carrier for Venezuela was proposed. In December 2002, the project of creating Conviasa was put on hold until October 1, 2003. On March 30, 2004, President Hugo Chávez signed a decree that formally established the airline. This decree was published in the nation's official gazette the next day.

On November 28, 2004, Conviasa's inaugural flight was made with a De Havilland Canada Dash 7 aircraft flying from the airport in Charallave to the Santiago Mariño International Airport, on Margarita Island. On December 10, 2004, Conviasa formally began its national and international operations. Conviasa originally belonged to the now extinct Ministry of Production and Commerce (Ministerio de la Producción y el Comercio), but it has since been taken over by the Ministry of Infrastructure.

On April 17, 2006, Jose David Cabello Rondon replaced Wilmer Castro Sotelo as head of Conviasa. On June 30, 2006, Jose David Cabello Rondon replaced Ramon Alonzo Carrizalez Rengifo as the Minister of Infrastructure and on July 18, 2006, Franklin Fernandez Martinez became president of Conviasa.

The airline is owned by the Venezuela government (80%) and the regional government of Nueva Esparta (20%).

[edit] Destinations

Further information: Conviasa destinations

Conviasa recently partnered with Air Europa and began codesharing its flight to Madrid five days a week using Air Europa's aircraft. Conviasa plans to fly to Madrid using their own aircraft three days a week in the future.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Code Share

Conviasa have code share agreements with the following:

[edit] Fleet

Conviasa's fleet includes the following aircraft (as of February 2008) ^[2] :

Aircraft	Number	Seats
ATR 42-400	4	46
ATR 72-202	1	70
Airbus A340-200	1	269
Boeing 737-200	2	119
Boeing 737-300	2	130
Boeing 767-300	1
Cessna 208	1
De Havilland Canada Dash 7	2	50

Conviasa received their first Airbus A340-200 on May 11, 2006 for their Caracas - Madrid route from Air Europa, but the plane remained unused for some time, it now operates the Caracas-Damascus-Tehran flights.

Conviasa plans to add Ilyushin Il-96s for long-haul flights due to its reluctance to purchase new aircraft from the United States.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Incidents and accidents

On December 15, 2005, a Conviasa De Havilland Canada Dash 7 with 36 passengers and 4 crew members was forced to make a belly landing at Porlamar's airport when the landing gear failed to deploy. After circling Porlamar for an hour and a half to burn off fuel, the aircraft touched down without any injuries.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Statistics

^{[citation needed]}

Between December 10, 2004 and March 26, 2006, 324,671 people have flown on Conviasa (252,896 domestically and 71,775 internationally).
Conviasa flies over 23,740 seats worldwide per week.
Conviasa has 9 flights each week from San Fernando de Apure.
Conviasa flies over 552 seats internationally per week.
The shortest flight on Conviasa is 86 miles from Guasdualito to Elorza.