Head-on clash over airline safety

Airline executives feel they are being unfairly targeted, as a trade dispute between Washington and Caracas heats up.

By Aleem Khan
Caracas, Venezuela

Following closely on the heels of the legal dispute between the Venezuelan Government and international air carriers, US-based airlines seem set to be the next target in a battle of wits between Washington and the South American administration. In mid-August, Venezuela reacted to the grounding of their local airliners flying to the United States by placing similar sanctions on US-based airlines operating between the continents.

Air links between the two countries had even been suspended for several days. Meanwhile, airline executives complain about being used as pawns in a high stakes game, which seems to have more to do with trade than airline safety. Washington initially imposed sanctions on Venezuelan airlines limiting their access to the US because of what it claims to be low air safety standards and administration.

"Our airline and passengers were definitely pawns in a dispute between two governments," complains John Hotard of American Airlines. "We are being sanctioned for something which is beyond our control."

"The dispute began last August when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) downgraded Venezuela's civil aviation authority to Category 2," said Kathleen Bergen of the FAA. This rating allows Venezuelan carriers to fly to the United States, but requires Venezuela to come up with a plan for addressing the deficiencies.

Further downgrade

Amid industry speculation that Washington was planning to further downgrade Venezuela to Category 3, which would entirely ban its airlines from the United States, several of the Venezuelan carriers were detained in early August while awaiting departure from Miami to Caracas. Venezuelan officials admitted that their decision to impound United and American Airlines flights was reciprocal action, but not retaliation. Then on August 7, late in the day - less than 90 minutes before United's scheduled 5:10 pm departure from New York's Kennedy Airport to Caracas - Venezuela assured the US carriers that they could resume normal service.

The assurance the carriers wanted was that they would not be "hassled by local authorities," as an American Airlines spokesman put it. At least one aviation consultant viewed the four Venezuelan airlines as pawns of the FAA's international aviation assessment program. They had restrictions imposed on their flights to the United States because of the alleged shortcomings of their country's civil aviation authority. "The FAA is right to inspect individual countries," said Robert Booth, publisher of Aviation-Latin America & Caribbean, a monthly newsletter published in Miami. "But those Venezuelan carriers are all privately owned, they're basically well-managed and safe. Therefore, to punish them in order to put pressure on Venezuela is unfair." Those carriers, which operated about a dozen daily flights to the United States, are Viasa, the largest domestic airline, as well as Avensa, Zuliana and Aserca. They have suspended most flights to the United States, and are awaiting further safety inspections. To bring pressure on countries whose civil aviation authority is considered unsafe, Booth added, the FAA should apply restrictions across the board and include US airlines that fly to those countries whose aviation standards are allegedly unsafe.

Similar criticism of that assessment program was raised by Ivan Michael Schaeffer, the chief executive of Woodside Travel Trust, a large travel-management organization. He suggested that the FAA's list of unsafe countries was dominated by Caribbean and South American nations and it ignored countries with questionable safety records if they are important trading partners. However, FAA acting administrator, Barry Valentine, denied the charge, saying the United States was "comfortable," from personal experience, with the aviation safety records of those countries not on the list. Both United and American canceled flights scheduled for late in the week, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded in both countries. An undetermined number of passengers booked on those carriers had been flown to Bogota, Colombia and Aruba on other carriers, then flown to Miami and beyond on American.

Currency losses

As reported in last month's issue of EXECUTIVE TIME, American Airlines (AA), which is suing Venezuela because of losses that the carrier attributes to currency restrictions, was particularly vexed by the sanctions. While it managed to fly its two morning nonstop flights from Caracas, the airline had to cancel its two afternoon flights and ferry the planes without passengers from Caracas to Miami. "The authorities in Caracas found some obscure circular that said the nose-gear wheel well had to have a sticker relating to the use of nitrogen to inflate the plane's tires," AA executive, John Hotard said. "We offered to produce such a sticker but they said it wasn't enough. Then they demanded paperwork from American and the FAA certifying as to the air-worthiness of our plane." After being told they could ferry the planes to Miami without passengers, American canceled its morning flight and put 185 would-be passengers into two Caracas hotels while it tried to resolve the dispute. When Venezuelan authorities then gave the carrier permission to fly the passengers out of Venezuela, American decided not to try rounding them up for fear the promise would be rescinded.

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