Cybergus From Venezuela, joined Mar 2006, 447 posts, RR: 10 Posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 7471 times:
Hi A.Netters.
The news are coming out and i'm really confused. It seems that Aeropostal (VH) is facing their final days around. Today an employees strike hit the company, leaving 12 flights on the ground. This days as you might now are critical for a lot of people who are trying to spend a few days out for Christmas and this strike is leaving a lot of passengers in CCS and the other cities that VH serves.
In the other hand INAC (The Venezuelan aeronautical institute) is managing the possibility of closing them, getting backed up with a lot of claims from the passengers. They are pretty screwed up because their reputation had become pretty bad from last year. According to the press they used to have a fleet of 22 planes and now they are managing to operate with only 3 aircraft. The INAC is waiting for a response until Jan 4th and then they will deliberate the faith of VH in the following 15 days.
A300AA From United States of America, joined Sep 2004, 388 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 7450 times:
What a problem, a Strike during this Holiday season.
Luisde8cd From Venezuela, joined Aug 2004, 2516 posts, RR: 34 Reply 2, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 7444 times:
Well I just hope that VH finally dies, we (venezuelan pax) deserve better than this. This strike action by the employees is basically a harikiri which will result in VH's demise. I also hope that S3 gets VH's rights to MIA from both VLN and CCS and that all VH employees will quickly find new and better jobs in other airlines.
Saludos,
Luis
Viasa we miss you!. Good times will return after Chavez is gone!
797 From Venezuela, joined Aug 2005, 1821 posts, RR: 26 Reply 3, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 7397 times:
Not impressed at all... It was time that someone did something about the insane management VH has been experiencing. One of my friends got his flight to PMV delayed for almost 24hrs... is that acceptable at all?
Let's wait to see what will happen.
Cheers
Flying isn't dangerous. Crashing is what's dangerous!
Rleiro From Venezuela, joined Jan 2006, 490 posts, RR: 7 Reply 4, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 7396 times:
Sad news indeed. This is the last Venezuelan legacy carrier that stills operating. However, their service is pretty bad and the constant delays due to a poor management will eventually lead the airline to cease operations.
Orl777 From Venezuela, joined Jun 2005, 251 posts, RR: 5 Reply 5, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 1 day 12 hours ago) and read 7319 times:
Well Things is getting worse for VH, because of all the Problems that the Airline have inside, maybe we are in the last month of operation of this historic Venezuelan Airline
MAH4546 From Sweden, joined Jan 2001, 31118 posts, RR: 73 Reply 6, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 7308 times:
This is unfortunate.
Traffic between Miami and Venezuela is at absolute record levels (in October, Aeropostal's MIA traffic was up 116% and Santa Barbara was up 68%), but Aeropostal is falling apart, partly at fault, it seems, of the Venezuelan government.
And the sad fact is that this might leave Valencia without service to the U.S. for a while, because neither Venezuela or the U.S. are approving new flights between the two countries. Two airlines - American and Avior - have MIA-VLN applications "on hold." Santa Barbara does not have the rights to fly MIA-VLN. They only have the rights to MIA-CCS, FLL-CCS, and MIA-MAR. The Venezuelan government is also stopping Spirit from FLL-CCS and American Eagle from SDQ-CCS and SJU-PMV. And, in return, that means the U.S. isn't allowing Avior to start not only MIA-VLN, but MIA-PMV and MIA-CGU (which they hope to start in February, but likely won't get approved for).
Ogre727 From Spain, joined Feb 2005, 693 posts, RR: 2 Reply 8, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 1 day 7 hours ago) and read 7232 times:
Ahhh.... What a pity. My first flight on a DC9 was in Aeropostal in August 1976 (I was 4 months old). It is a pity that they go. I was never really impressed by their service, but as I grow older, it makes me sad to see many airlines I flew as a child gone (Pan Am, Viasa, Eastern, Avensa, Aeropostal, Swissair).
Venezuela747 From United States of America, joined Jan 2004, 1407 posts, RR: 5 Reply 9, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 22 hours ago) and read 7134 times:
I think he means PZO....Puerto Ordaz or Ciudad Guayana. I had read something about that, with the renovations done to the terminal and the new runway. It had been proposed for avior to start a MAO-PZO flight along with looking into a PZO-USA flight sometime in February 08 or so.
MAH4546 From Sweden, joined Jan 2001, 31118 posts, RR: 73 Reply 10, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 22 hours ago) and read 7128 times:
Quoting Venezuela747 (Reply 9): I think he means PZO....Puerto Ordaz or Ciudad Guayana. I had read something about that, with the renovations done to the terminal and the new runway. It had been proposed for avior to start a MAO-PZO flight along with looking into a PZO-USA flight sometime in February 08 or so.
Correct. Avior plans to launch MIA-PZO non-stops on 14FEB08. Of course, if Venezuela doesn't approva AA MIA-VLN and NK FLL-CCS, US DOT will not approve MIA-PZO for Avior.
Cybergus From Venezuela, joined Mar 2006, 447 posts, RR: 10 Reply 11, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 21 hours ago) and read 7086 times:
As MAH4546 said VH had one of their best records in the CCS-MIA route. Miami is such a collapsed market for Venezuelans. All the flights are full until the end of January, in fact LA had opened another frequencies which have been already sold out. This is completely out of the hands of the current airlines, i mean all the flights are full including the flights that have a stopover (CM, TA, DL, CO, AV, MX). So what is the solution? i think that the INAC and FAA should start their approval for NK FLL-CCS, AA MIA-VLN, 9V VLN/PZO-MIA so in that way relax a little bit the chaos situation on the route.
Now with this VH situation the panorama got worse...now the passengers that had their tickets with VH to MIA had to figure out how will they arrive to their destination. I think that VH opened a special flight for those who got stranded on CCS but i didn't find any article or proof about it.
MAH4546 From Sweden, joined Jan 2001, 31118 posts, RR: 73 Reply 12, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 21 hours ago) and read 7069 times:
Quoting Cybergus (Reply 11): As MAH4546 said VH had one of their best records in the CCS-MIA route. Miami is such a collapsed market for Venezuelans. All the flights are full until the end of January, in fact LA had opened another frequencies which have been already sold out. This is completely out of the hands of the current airlines, i mean all the flights are full including the flights that have a stopover (CM, TA, DL, CO, AV, MX). So what is the solution? i think that the INAC and FAA should start their approval for NK FLL-CCS, AA MIA-VLN, 9V VLN/PZO-MIA so in that way relax a little bit the chaos situation on the route.
Yup. Plus AA is doing their best to schedule larger planes to Caracas (no more 738s, just 757s and A300s right now) and is considering switching MIA-MAR to an A300 flight in the spring. And Santa Barbara is now using 763s to Miami on a scheduled basis to handle the demand. Miami-Venezuela has absolutely exploded, although demand between Venezuela and the rest of the country has absolutely collapsed (sans San Juan), and Miami is now accounting for nearly 75% of USA-Venezuela traffic, when it typically accounted for around 45%.
JIWNCO From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 13, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 21 hours ago) and read 7063 times:
How sad. It wasn't always "Aeromortal" (*)... My best friend just came back from CCS and MAR and vowed to never fly them again. He is a Conviasa fan now.
Aviateur From United States of America, joined Apr 2004, 1347 posts, RR: 12 Reply 14, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 21 hours ago) and read 7057 times:
Save Aeropostal !
Below is a link to an article I wrote a couple of years back, describing a domestic flight I took aboard Aeropostal out of Caracas. It talks about the carrier's history, and includes a "report card" of my experience ...
Avianca From Venezuela, joined Jan 2005, 5857 posts, RR: 40 Reply 16, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 15 hours ago) and read 6945 times:
well not a big surprise... even I still have great memories about VH's "operation and great customers-service" from this year... 2 x 5 hours delays, several short delays of around 2 hours... some bigger delays for family members...
problems with luggage... etc etc etc etc..
Cybergus From Venezuela, joined Mar 2006, 447 posts, RR: 10 Reply 17, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 14 hours ago) and read 6932 times:
Guys...these videos are something to see...they were taped by an angry passenger who's flight was delayed for 24hours and then when the 24h passed...surprise! there was no plane, so they decided to take the ramp of CCS as a measure of strike.
Rleiro From Venezuela, joined Jan 2006, 490 posts, RR: 7 Reply 18, posted (5 years 5 months 1 week 12 hours ago) and read 6876 times:
Quote: but Aeropostal is falling apart, partly at fault, it seems, of the Venezuelan government.
I have to admit here that this is not a political issue. Aeropostal's management during the last years were involved in extremely ambitious plans amid a strong competition. For example the "Alas de Centroamerica" project:
They pretended to be a competition for TACA in the Central American market... With 35 - 40 year old planes and basing a hub in San Jose, the same airport in which TACA has its hub... Obviously this project never took off.
After the demise of VIASA in 1997, Aeropostal's plans were to become a charter airline offering flights between Europe and the Caribbean, by taking the routes left by VIASA... This also resulted in a financial disaster.
Now the UFly project... the rebirth of Falcon Air. Basically, UFly (owned by the same owners of Aeropostal) was going to provide the MD-8X to Aeropostal for its international networl, and Aeropostal would keep the DC-9s for the domestic ones. The INAC refused to extend the lifetime of many of these airplanes, and the DOT has not granted yet the permission to UFly to start operations.
In the while we have Aserca which is rising rapidly with a large fleet of DC-9s, taking many employees of Aeropostal with them, people with years of experience operating this type of airplane, by offering better job conditions and salaries. On the other hand, the unattended routes of Aeropostal (the ones to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru) were revoked by the INAC. So, I would not be surprised to see Aserca or Santa Barbara flying to the Andean region in the coming months (Santa Barbara already has a flight to Guayaquil).
To sum up. The future of Aeropostal is pretty dark. I do not believe we will see her anymore in the coming months.
Trintocan From United Kingdom, joined Apr 2000, 3191 posts, RR: 4 Reply 20, posted (5 years 5 months 3 days 21 hours ago) and read 6629 times:
This is very sad to hear of. The article and the videos both told the story of this once-great Venezuelan airline. Perhaps another significant aspect of this story is how Aeropostal actually got its name and its significance in Trinidad aviation. Aeropostal was originally a French-owned company, Compagne General Aeropostal de Aviation which was set up in the 1920s and offered services across Latin America and the Caribbean. It collapsed in 1933 but the name was taken over by Venezuela while many of the regional services were taken over by the nascent Air France. Compagne Aeropostal was the first airline to serve POS (as in Piarco Airport) in 1931 - while Pan Am was in Trinidad several years earlier it used a seaplane base it built in Cocorite, just West of Port of Spain. Pan Am would not fly to Piarco until 1949, when it abandoned seaplane operations worldwide. Aeropostal in its later incarnation of Linea Aeropostal Venezolana was a regular at POS and its DC-9s offered PMV and CCS on very regular services. In the 1970s and 1980s it was very popular with shoppers from Trinidad who flew over to buy lovely Venezuelan goods - shoes, jewelry, handbags and the like - at great prices. I went to Venezuela on Aeropostal in 1987 on a school trip and flew to Puerto Ordaz - in part I can credit this trip, which was part of my Spanish language education, with my ability to speak Spanish to this day.
Aeropostal served POS until its 1994 demise. When it was reborn as Alas de Venzuela it returned to POS and has been a regular fixture until now - sadly its decline was apparent when I was in POS awaiting a flight to TAB in November, while a flight of VH to CCS was on the boards nobody appeared at the check-in counters or to check-in, making it apparent that the flight was actually cancelled.
Lo siento mucho amigos. Aeropostal esta una linea con una historia larga y grande. La linea se amerita mas mejor de esta.
In English - I'm very sorry my friends. Aeropostal is an airline with a long and great history and deserved much better than this.
Viasa From Switzerland, joined Jun 2005, 1813 posts, RR: 7 Reply 21, posted (5 years 5 months 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 6539 times:
Quoting Trintocan (Reply 20): Aeropostal is an airline with a long and great history
This is true. I would say, that Aeropostal was a pionier!
Here is a list of planes that was operated by Aeropostal:
Airbus A310-300
Airbus A320-200
BAe (HS) 748
Boeing 727-200
Curtis C-46 Commando
DeHavilland Comet 1 (not delivered after the crashs of the 1950s)
DeHavilland DHC-6
Douglas DC-3
Douglas DC-4
Douglas DC-9-10
Douglas DC-9-20
Douglas DC-9-30
Douglas DC-9-50
Latécoère 26
Latécoère 28
Lockheed L-10 Electra (not L-188)
Lockheed L-18 Lodestar
Lockheed L-049 Constellation
Lockheed L-749 Constellation
Lockheed L-1049 SuperConstellation
Martin 2-0-2
Mc Donnell Douglas MD-82
Mc Donnell Douglas MD-83
Vickers Viscount 701
Viasa From Switzerland, joined Jun 2005, 1813 posts, RR: 7 Reply 22, posted (5 years 4 months 3 weeks 1 day 16 hours ago) and read 6320 times:
Any news from Venezuela?
The only thing I heard is that Aeropostal's only MD-82 (N905TA) had an AOG. They leased the B767-300 from Ryan Int'l. I have no idea for how long it was, but it must cost a lot for VH....
Avianca From Venezuela, joined Jan 2005, 5857 posts, RR: 40 Reply 24, posted (5 years 4 months 3 weeks 1 day 14 hours ago) and read 6267 times:
Quoting Cybergus (Reply 23): and i saw the N905TA taking off with a delay to CCS.
as usual.... lol
well, I think we wont see them longer than 1 month in the skys...
Colombia es el Mundo Y el Mundo es Colombia
25 LTU932: They already obtained their AOC from CTAC, and yet they never launced. TI-AZS never took off again after their certification flights for the AOC. Hel
26 Maracucho85: Hey guys! Happy New Year to you all!! I´ve been closely following the situation regarding ALV in these last days, and although I wouldn´t want t
27 MAH4546: Indeed. It's amazing what the situation in Venezuela has done to Miami-Venezuela traffic. The unfortunate thing is, traffic is at record levels never
28 Viasa: Aeropostal will decide today what's happen to the company. I heard that they have losses from around USD 100 Millions... I think that they would stopp
29 Orl777: Yesterday I was Reading that Aeropostal have a new President, Here is the link, And the planning to add more routes and Aircraft to the fleet, Sorry i
30 Georgiabill: Hopefully they will acquire newer MD80'S to replace their older DC9'S. However I will miss those 9'S. At one time Aerpostal was a great airline, good
31 Chiguire: The plan was to use the 2 or 3 MDs from Tikal Jet that ceased operations early last year. As far as I know the contract was signed, but they were nev
32 Viasa: Any news? btw: here is the link to the new promotion of VH: http://www.aeropostal.com/aero2004/promociones/promovaca.html
33 Chiguire: The decision has been postponed untill Jan 19th.
34 Avianca: they would do a hell of money on cargo revenue. So far MAR is very restricted with the cargo ops (2 x weekly Amerijet 727F coming into La Chinita) +
35 Chiguire: So if there is a demand to MAR...why are there no more regular cargo cops ?
36 Avianca: really good question why there arent more cargo flights into MAR from MIA. Maybe it is restricted??? These days you can get space from MIA into CCS f
38 AA1818: I'm also waiting with bated breath- it could be any day now since the Jan 19th deadline has come and passed. My thoughts are with the staff and the a
39 LatinAviation: Has there been any update to the situation with Aeropostal?
40 Chiguire: No news yet. The website is down, the CRD is down.....negociations seem to continue.
41 Chiguire: Maybe I am paranoid. But a Governor (from Carabobo state) is about to buy Aeropostal. The debt is said to be around 100 million US$. The airline is un
42 Rleiro: Last Sunday there were 3 DC-9's and an MD-80 in CCS, it seemed to operate normally, although the counter desks of VH were empty in comparison with R7
43 797: WHAT!!!!??? There's the real sight of the Venezuelan Revolution... First, let VH die... now that a 'brother' has the airline let's subsidize it... YE
44 Civilav: You are quite all right my friend and the transaction was duly carried out over the Christmas period in sunny Florida. Aeropostal will be firmly in t
45 Viasa: Off topic: Santa Barbara Airlines get a new livery. It look's modern, but not so nice like the actuell livery. Interesting is, that they also have the
46 Chiguire: This is a joke, isn't it ? This is a really ugly livery . As far as I know it is still not 100% done. But I am sure it will happen. One day i a not s
47 Cybergus: OMG...it is UGLY!!!....and the Aserca Logo on the tail is the proof of who is the new owner. I love the old livery! Tavo
48 Rleiro: If the "Power Rangers" livery is awful, this one is worse. I've seen some crew vans already wearing the S3 logo "a la" R7, but I think the currently
50 Chiguire: And back to the Aeropostal Topic: Looks like the deal is DONE ! The website is up again - including online booking. And the CRS (Sabre) is working aga
51 797: Holy CRAP! That's one of the ugliest and unfriendly liveries I've seen in a long time... it goes against the airline's concept and I'd say is very unl
52 Avianca: great... Chiguiere, please book for me some flights on this great airline... well at least I didnt lost all my vouchers that I still have at home...
53 Chiguire: I know you two guys really felt in love with this airline First of all I am happy that some 1200 employees didin't lose their jobs. The rest - we wil
54 Avianca: remember "ahora es de todos" ..... always thought the Governors are paid with "platanos, rice and caraotas" and not with hard cash... hard times for
57 Chiguire: Seems like Aeropostal is sick of the technical problems with the 737 operated by Avior for their CUR-SDQ and POS route. As of tomorrow those routes wi
58 Viasa: Chiguire did you know for how long they lease this plane?
59 AA1818: Shame POS is not getting the MD80s/ DC9s. How often is POS served? I remember seeing 2 DC9s regularly at POS on a morning. AA1818
60 Chiguire: I have no clue. They sent around communications even with internal shots of the plane. Seems to me like a long term solution.
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