Controversial Airline Plus Ultra Offers ‘Repatriation Flights’ For €1,200

CONTROVERSIAL airline Plus Ultra offers ‘repatriation flights’ between Spain and Venezuela for €1,200

Struggling airline Plus Ultra is in the news again, this time for offering so-called repatriation flights from Spain to Venezuela at an eye-watering €1,200, despite the fact that the Spanish Government put a stop to the return journey last month. The carrier, owned by Venezuelan businessmen and given a controversial bail-out of €53million by Spain, has advertised the flights from Madrid to Caracas beginning in the first week of April.

A Government source told Spanish daily Vozpópuli that they are no longer operating repatriation flights for Spaniards from Venezuela: “Humanitarian flights were definitely suspended at the end of February, in view of alternative options with a stopover.”

Even though commercial operations between Spain and Venezuela are supposed to be prohibited and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that repatriation flights from the Caribbean country to Spain “are permanently suspended”, Plus Ultra resumed flights between the countries on March 24 with the only aircraft it currently has in operation.

A source in Foreign Affairs stated that “the Spanish embassy in Caracas has requested the Venezuelan authorities to open its airspace, to allow regular flights, so that all interested companies with the capacity to operate on routes between Spain and Venezuela can do so.”

Vox filed a complaint with the Supreme Court on Wednesday, March 24 against the Spanish Government and those responsible for the State Society if Industrial Participations (SEPI) for providing a €53million rescue package to failing airline Plus Ultra. The deputy of Vox, Victor Gonzales Coello de Portugal claims that the airline did not meet the requirements to avail of state aid since “it is not a strategic company with relevance in its sector nor are its losses caused by Covid-19.”

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