Qatar Airways will add two South American points to its network in July with the launch of service to Bogota, Colombia, and Caracas, Venezuela.
The carrier will open a three-leg route connecting Doha’s Hamad International Airport (DOH) with Bogata’s El Dorado International Airport (BOG) and Caracas Simon Bolivar International Airport (CCS). The DOH-BOG-CCS-DOH routing will be operated twice weekly using the Boeing 777-200.
Qatar Airways will become the only Gulf airline serving Venezuela, which continues to see an uptick in international airline traffic. Emirates serves BOG via fifth-freedom flights from Miami International Airport (MIA).
The addition of Qatar Airways to the roster of carriers serving CCS comes as Venezuela continues to take a more open stance toward international commercial aviation following the change in government leadership precipitated by the Jan. 3 U.S. military raid in Caracas extracting Nicolás Maduro, the now former Venezuelan president who is in prison in the U.S. awaiting criminal trial.
American Airlines' regional subsidiary Envoy Air started daily Embraer 175 aircraft flights between MIA and CCS on April 30, ending a seven-year period in which there was no commercial air service between the U.S. and Venezuela. American plans to add a second daily MIA-CCS E175 flight on May 21.
According to OAG Schedules Analyzer data, airlines are offering 46,638 international seats to and from CCS for the week of May 11, almost threefold the 16,612 weekly international seats operated the week of Jan. 5.
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