Conviasa, Venezuela’s national carrier, had the sanctions launched by the United States government eased in relation to its fleet of Embraer E190 jets.
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) authorized the airline to carry out maintenance services on the aircraft and for them to be transferred to facilities outside the country without risk of penalties.
The company has 15 E190 jets in its fleet, in addition to maintaining a Lineage 1000 (VIP version) of the aircraft in service of the Venezuelan presidency.
The planes were acquired from Embraer at the beginning of the last decade and delivered between 2012 and 2015, therefore much younger than the five Airbus A340 (average age of 24 years) and its only ATR 42 turboprop (28 years).
The measure allows Conviasa to proceed with “all transactions ordinarily incident and necessary to the general maintenance (including repair) of the blocked aircraft”, listed in an annex containing the 16 E190 aircraft registrations.
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The authorization, dated November 16, also allows aircraft to carry out non-commercial (non-profit) flights between countries outside the US.
Although the aircraft were developed and assembled in Brazil, most of the components are supplied by US companies, such as the CF-34 engines, manufactured by GE.
The US government, however, did not extend relief to the A340 widebodies and the ATR 42. The aircraft have received support from companies in Iran, which is also the target of sanctions.
