avianca airlines (AV, Bogotá) has announced it has suspended all flights to Cuba pending the issuance of an exemption by the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
Last month, parent firm Avianca Holdings revealed that as of November 2018, it was now recognized as a person subject to US jurisdiction under OFAC given 78% of its shareholding is now controlled by BRW Aviation LLC, a Delaware-based limited liability company.
As such, the South American carrier said it may have violated US trade sanctions against the Communist-run island by running regularly scheduled commercial passenger flights between cities in Central and South America and Havana, Cuba.
On September 25, 2019, Avianca Holdings submitted a preliminary voluntary self-disclosure to OFAC addressing any such potential inadvertent violations. As a precautionary measure, it also applied for an OFAC exemption allowing its avianca airlines (AV, Bogotá) and Avianca Airlines Perú (Lima International) subsidiaries to continue serving Havana International from each of Bogotá and Lima International.
"Avianca Holdings reports that, while resolving a pending issue with the Office of Foreign Assets Control - OFAC - related to commercial operations to Cuba, the Company will suspend the sale of tickets from and to Cuba as of October 31, 2019," it said in a statement.
Last week, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) withdrew all authorities granted to US carriers to run scheduled flights to any of the nine international airports in Cuba other than Havana, namely Camagüey, Cayo Coco, Cayo Largo del Sur, Cienfuegos, Holguin, Manzanillo Sierra Maestra, Varadero, Santa Clara de Cuba, and Santiago de Cuba, effective December 10, 2019.
