Traveling to Venezuela: an expensive and inaccessible destination for many Venezuelan migrants

After almost two years of air restrictions due to the pandemic and an economic recovery that organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Credit Suisse assure Venezuela is experiencing, the country has reopened its doors to tourists and Venezuelans who emigrated a few years ago and now they return, in most cases, to visit their relatives.

However, the high cost of air tickets compared to other destinations in the region has generated surprise and indignation in many of the Venezuelans who have returned to visit the country.

For example, a round trip ticket from Bogotá to Lima starts at 275 dollars, while for the Bogotá-Caracas route, for which there is no direct flight, the cost is 570 dollars.

The prices are absurd

Carlos Peña, a 32-year-old Venezuelan, lived this reality recently when he organized his mother’s trip to Venezuela, who returned to run some errands and visit relatives.

The young journalist told the voice of america that for a round-trip Copa Airlines ticket from Santiago de Chile to Caracas he had to pay 1,000 dollars.

“The prices for Venezuela are too expensive because Copa Airlines is the only airline that travels from Chile to Caracas. They work fine but the prices are absurd. It is more expensive than traveling to Europe,” he assured.

Carlos, who precisely says that he emigrated from Venezuela due to the country’s crisis, managed to pay for his mother’s passage thanks to the payment facilities offered by Chilean banks and which are scarce in his native country.

However, he reiterates that prices are unaffordable for many. In his case, he assures that with the 1,000 dollars he spent on a ticket, or for much less, he could buy a trip to Argentina, Brazil or Peru all included (ticket, lodging, meals, transportation).

But prices from Venezuela from the region are not the only expensive ones. Ricardo Méndez, 27, recently traveled from Madrid Venezuela to meet up with family and friends.

The round trip ticket cost 900 euros, almost 1,000 dollars according to the official rate in Venezuela. For this amount, they offer all-inclusive packages with tourist destinations such as Cancun or Miami.

For the young man, the price of the ticket is another reflection that the situation in Venezuela has not improved as many claim.

“I would love to be optimistic and say that Venezuela was fixed, but that would be crazy. In Venezuela the health system does not work, the services continue to be chaotic, in my family’s house the water only arrives on weekends”, she affirmed.

Gather to be able to travel to Venezuela

The high costs of the tickets are not accessible to all Venezuelan migrants. There are cases like that of Daleska Salas Moreno, 25, who emigrated from Venezuela to Peru in 2018 due to the crisis in the country.

After four years in Lima and after the end of the restrictions due to the pandemic, she and her partner have planned to travel to Venezuela to visit their relatives. However, the prices of air tickets force them to gather.

Moreno tells the VOA that the cost of a round trip ticket to Venezuela has a cost of almost 1,000 dollars. An amount that seems excessive to him and for which they also plan to buy tickets for the Lima-Cúcuta route, which costs less than 500 dollars.

“We prefer to travel to Cúcuta and then cross the border to Venezuela, it’s much cheaper that way,” he says.

The lack of supply behind the high costs

For Humberto Figuera, executive president of the Association of Air Lines (ALAV), the high cost of air tickets to travel to Venezuela is mainly due to the limited supply of airlines in the country. For this reason, the agency has highlighted on several occasions the need to restore the routes that were active in the country about 10 years ago.

“To get to Chile from Caracas you must make a connection from Panama, Mexico, which means a longer travel time and the payment of two tickets, one that takes you to Panama and the other to Caracas. That is one of the reasons, the other is that to the extent that there are fewer players in air transport, prices tend to rise due to a logical relationship between supply and demand”, he explained.

“What we propose is to re-establish as soon as possible direct flights between Venezuela and other countries where there were those direct flights before. Now it is much more urgent because in those countries like Argentina, Chile, Peru, Mexico, some Venezuelan colonies are settled that are very important and are possible passengers who would occupy those direct routes, ”he added.

However, Figuera believes that the growing reactivation that the Venezuelan air sector is experiencing will end up reducing ticket costs.

“To the extent that there are many lines operating, tickets will go down in price and the service of the airlines, a product of the competition, will improve,” he said.

Figuera also highlighted the importance of improving several points to make the country an attractive tourist destination for more foreigners.

“That there is air connectivity that allows passengers to fly comfortably, have their time to travel, that there is a good service on the ground when they arrive, that there is security. We have an advantage that is the friendliness of our people but we still need to give passengers security”.

The president of ALAV also sees it as essential that the Venezuelan government be able to lower the tax requirements that the passenger has to pay to a minimum and that the airlines be able to operate with good occupancy so that this leads to a complete reactivation of the sector.

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