According to the renowned website Yahoo! Finance, Avior, the Venezuelan airline, is one of the airlines that should be avoided at all costs. Yahoo! points out in its report that Avior Airlines, “along with Blue Wings Airlines from Suriname, is the only South American airline that does not have approval from the European Union to operate in its airspace. Founded in Venezuela in 1994, Avior Airlines operates exclusively within Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.”
If you are planning your next vacation and need to book a flight, it is essential to consider the European Union (EU) Air Safety List. This list compiles airlines that do not meet international safety standards and therefore lack authorization to fly over the airspace of EU member countries.
The European Commission (EC), supported by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the opinions of aviation experts from member states, regularly updates this blacklist of unsafe airlines. Currently, there are a total of 103 companies on this list, and three aviation companies, Air Service Comores (Comoros Islands), Iran Air (Iran), and Air Koryo (North Korea), are subject to operational restrictions and can only fly with specific aircraft.
The European Commission produces this blacklist quarterly to ensure that all airlines operating in the EU meet safety standards. Surprisingly, on this list, we find a single Latin American airline: Avior Airlines from Venezuela.
In addition to Avior, six other airlines are also under restrictions, meaning they can only operate with certain types of aircraft. Among them are TAAG Angola Airlines from Angola, Iran Air from Iran, and Air Koryo from North Korea. Safety issues in these airlines are often detected through random inspections conducted by aviation authorities when they land on European soil. During these inspections, documents, the overall condition of the aircraft, and crew documentation are verified. If the results are negative, the airline may lose its right to fly and operate in EU airports, as has happened in the case of Avior Airlines, owned by brothers Jorge Añez and Roberto Añez.
It is worth mentioning that long before May 15, 2019, when the United States suspended flights from Venezuela to its country, Avior Airlines had already been sanctioned by the FAA due to inadequate maintenance of its aircraft, preventing it from flying to the United States. Subsequently, Panama and Aruba also joined the flight ban imposed by the FAA, forcing Avior Airlines to cancel its operations to those destinations. Currently, the only international route still allowing flights from Avior Airlines’ outdated and poorly maintained planes (its obsolete Boeing 737s are over 40 years old) is to the Dominican Republic.