Venezuela’s Estelar to wet-lease an A320 for US ops

Aerolíneas Estelar (ES, Caracas Simón Bolivar) is looking to restart flights from Venezuela to the United States using an A320-200 wet-leased from GLOBALX (Miami Int’l). According to US start-up’s press releases, it hopes to operate to Miami Int’l daily from Caracas Simón Bolivar and 3x weekly from Maracaibo. Chairman and Chief Executive Ed Wegel has since confirmed to ch-aviation that the flights would be operated on an ACMI basis. GLOBALX said that while direct air traffic between the US and Venezuela remains banned, it expected that the prohibition would be lifted in the coming months. The carrier has hired lobbyist firm Mercury LLC to assist in government consultations and ensure that any actions undertaken are in compliance with the prevailing US regulations. For its part, Aerolineas Estelar operates one B737-200 and four B737-300s. Its operations are currently limited to irregular scheduled services between Caracas and Porlamar.