Copa Airlines (CM, Panamá City Tocumen International) chairman Stanley Motta has asked the Venezuelan government to convert USD470 million of unrepatriated revenue still tied-up in the country, into longterm bonds.
“I am trying to find something that makes sense to both sides,” he told Bloomberg news in an interview last week. “If they take that debt and say this is the same as having public bonds out there, and this is how we will pay it over time, and this is the institution involved, I literally think that’s the best thing for Venezuela.”
Copa Holdings said in its first-quarter report that the USD470 million, or 41%, of its cash, short-term and long-term investments were still in Venezuela pending repatriation.
Despite promises, President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government has failed to decisively deal with Venezuela's outstanding foreign currency debt to airlines, which IATA now estimates to stand at USD3.7 billion.
"The blocked money was generated from airline ticket sales in Venezuela and is being withheld in breach of international treaties," IATA said in a statement in June. "Venezuela's difficult economic situation is not an excuse to delay addressing the issue, which is unfair to airlines and inconvenient to passengers."
Venezuela has a complex system of currency controls in place which dictate when and how much revenue airlines can repatriate from the country.
While international thinktanks have blamed Maduro's populist policies - a carry over from predecessor Hugo Chavez - for the country's economic woes, Maduro himself has blamed a right-wing conspiracy fomented by the United States.
Venezuela is due to hold parliamentary elections in December.
