Ecuador’s Tame is the latest airline to end service to Venezuela

The Ecuadorian state airline Tame has announced the suspension of its flights to Venezuela citing safety and financial concerns for the decision.

A Tame airline jet on the tarmac in Quito.

The last Tame flight departed Caracas on Saturday to Bogotá and from there to Quito. The decision had been announced last October and no more tickets were sold since November. However, at the request of the Venezuelan government, efforts continued into January to find a way to maintain the flights.

Tame is the latest to join a long list of airlines that have left the Venezuelan market inlcuding Aerolineas Airlines, Avianca, United Airlines, Dynamic Airways, Aeromexico, Lufthansa, Alitalia and Air Canada.

Tame said that the route stopped being profitable due to technical problems at Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, newspaper El Comercio reported. It also that that Venezuela’s annual inflation rate of almost 2000% made doing business almost impossible.

Ignacio Vallejo, CEO of Tame, also informed the local newspaper that until October 2017 Venezuela had a debt of $6 million with the airline, a situation that is being resolved.

With the passing of days, Venezuelans are even more isolated and with very little chance of traveling by air.

So serious is the situation that in December of 2017, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), an organization that brings together all the airlines, announced the closure of its offices in Venezuela.

Only six Latin American airlines continue to operate in Venezuela compared to 24 in 2014. International traffic in Venezuela has dropped by 65% since its peak in 2013.