The U.S. Treasury Department has issued a new general license involving Conviasa, Venezuela’s state-owned airline, creating a path for U.S. persons to provide aircraft maintenance and airworthiness-related support to the sanctioned carrier. Does that mean Conviasa is suddenly returning to the United States? Not quite. But it is still a notable development in the slow reopening of U.S.–Venezuela air links.
Conviasa has been under U.S. sanctions for years. In 2020, Treasury identified Conviasa and much of its fleet as blocked property, accusing the Maduro regime of using the state-owned airline to shuttle regime officials around the world and support its political agenda (which is most certainly did with a route map that included Caracas to Moscow, Havana, and Tehran). That effectively made dealings with the airline radioactive for U.S. persons.
Now, OFAC has issued a general license authorizing transactions ordinarily incident and necessary to providing goods, technology, software, and services for the “maintenance, repair, upgrade, refurbishment, improvement, safety, or airworthiness” of Conviasa aircraft. In plain English: U.S. persons may now support certain safety and airworthiness-related work involving Conviasa aircraft without needing a specific license from OFAC, so long as they remain within the limits of the license.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on Live and Let's Fly.
