MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela allows flights to and from Portugal to resume

Travel agents should not sell tickets to destinations other than those listed by Inac

The Venezuelan government of President Nicolás Maduro Wednesday gave the nod to the resumption of commercial flights to and from Portugal, which were halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Venezuela's National Institute of Civil Aeronautics (Inac) released a list of destinations in which Portugal appeared once again: “Only commercial air operations are authorized for the transfer of passengers between the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the countries of Turkey, Mexico, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Russia, Cuba, Spain and Portugal,” the aviation authority said.

Flight restrictions are a part of the Executive's measures “to counteract the pandemic and help in the fight against COVID-19,” Inac added.

Flights to all of Europe were banned in March 2020 after the the first local cases of the new disease were detected. In November that year, flights to Panama, Turkey, the Dominican Republic, Iran and Mexico were allowed. Bolivia and Russia joined the list of destinations later on.

Despite the new announcement, Maduro explained that for the moment his country would not resume the so-called 7 + 7 program, which consisted of seven days of quarantine and seven days of flexibility. The President also said Sunday that 76% of Venezuelans over 18 years of age were fully vaccinated.

Inac also urged travel agents to refrain from selling tickets to destinations other than those listed in the official statement and also recommended the population not to buy any such tickets should they be offered.

Venezuela maintains a “broad and general relaxation” of the quarantine due to SARS-CoV-2, despite the latest wave of infections due to the Omicron variant. So far 499,537 infections and 5,504 deaths have been recorded nationwide due to COVID-19.