Venezuelan Airline Leasing A380

What was Hi Fly thinking? Surely that they could get the A380 cheap. And the biggest concerns many airlines have had taking the used jets is the reconfiguration cost, Willie Walsh says that's why he walked away from taking some. Hi Fly has no such problems.

However even if the acquisition cost is low, the operating costs are pretty high especially if you aren't able to fill the aircraft - something very hard for most airlines on most routes most days of the week.

If the flight was coming from say MAD and the next flight would be to EZE, I'd think that the outbound crew will continue on that flight to EZE as pax and not stay in Caracas. This is indeed a very interesting lease. Either way, the passengers are in for a treat.

The whole country starving and millions of refugees leaving Venezuela. But they are leasing an A380 and blocking off the upper deck so that the Boligarchs can travel to Buenos Aires and Madrid and post Instagram stories from the Suites without being bothered by the riff-raff. Socialism at its finest!

@Michael

Nothing to do with socialism. At all.

How is the lease being paid for given the currency controls?

If they are blocking the upstairs, they could use it for a full second crew and never need to leave anyone in Caracas.

They can't even feed their own people how are they going to afford an a380?

I assume that Hi Fly is simply switching it straight, without any additional fees (seeing as it's their A340 that is under maintenance)?

@Michael, what a nonsense comment - surely you are joking.

BTW, FlightRadar showing departure was delayed by nearly 4 hours.

Again flying a double deck plane but with only a limited number of pax. Who is running this HiFly project, it makes no sense. And how much of a premium for an A380 can Estelar pay? I'm guessing none over their regular charter. Is this the big summer charter customer that HiFly was boasting of earlier this year???

I noticed on Routes Online that this airline will run limited flights to Lisbon this summer too presumably using a HiFly plane.

I think it's part of the maintenance and a Portuguese - Venezuela business. I agree partially with @Dennis but I'm sure there's money involved. I also imagine that Venezuela is filthy rich of petroleum for a start.

Sorry about my previous comment about the A340 photos, my mistake. I was thinking of A380.

Looks like hi-fly have some pretty major aircraft availability issues so this was probably the only option

9H-SOL has been on the ground in Caracas since 11th July, 9H-FOX on the ground in Boston since 13th July. At least 3 other frames haven't flown for a good while & 9H-SUN operating for Norwegian Gatwick-Orlando appears to have been covered by their own 787 a couple of times recently (as well as that flight operating late EVERY DAY!)

I wouldn't be too worried as crew, slipping in CCS.

At BA we've just started slipping in Islamabad which is a bit of a hot mess of the city. And until recently we were slipping in Tehran without issue.

The only city we served in recent years where it was deemed too unsafe to slip was Freetown, Sierra Leone. We'd operate LHR-FNA-ROB and slip in Monrovia.

Occasionally when LOS becomes a bit dicey BA sought dispensation from the CAA to close the upper deck of the jumbo and deadhead the inbound crew out using the U/D as crew rest but this has been rare. Usually we have armed private security escorts front and back of the crew transport to the crew hotel where we are effectively under house arrest for 24 hours lol

I see it took off five hours late, how very Hi-Fly...

This airline was sold to very shady businessman with great links and relations to the corrupt Venezuelan government. They obtained the CCS-MAD route in a controversial way. Even more suspicious was where the sources of funds for a Hi Fly A340 lease would come from. Having the regular A340 in mainteneance in the summer season has pushed the operation to its limit since many passengers get constantly stuck at airports due this precarious operation run by crooks and a charter company with no back up aircraft

Flee on Airbus no more walking to Cuccuta!!! Or Better Chavistas take your Gold and Portugal is waiting for you With they'r Golden Visa!!

Let's suppose that at the end of the lease, the airline refuses to return it. Good luck trying to repossess that $400 million asset in Venezuelan courts.

@Michael nailed it!

@Galo Rand Refreshing to read so well informed comment. You saved me from writing a longer comment.

As for the other clueless comments, yes, it has everything to do wit the real face of Socialism

@duck ling you have no Idea , for the few daring airlines that still operate, a few months ago the bus taking the UX crew to the Airport Hotel I always staying at, was followed in bikes and shot in a hijack attempt (in the very short trip from CCS airport to the only decent nearby hotel), lucky they were, no one was hurt or robbed. But i'm quite sure they'll deeply disagree with you.

I tried to book myself on the very first A380 departing my country but my city only have ONE weekly flight (yes, THAT'S Socialism for the other blind manipulated commenters) and the 5 hour road trip is as dangerous as you could never imagine, so dangerous indeed its been aprox 12 years that I don't take that drive.

The ops timetable for the following days:

ES895 CCS MAD A380-800 15-July-2019
ES894 MAD CCS A380-800 16-July-2019
ES8569 CCS EZE A380-800 17-July-2019
ES8568 EZE CCS A380-800 17-July-2019

The A380 is the ideal escape vehicle for Chavista's to exit Venezuela. No loss of upper class image. Plus privacy from cheap seats.

I have never seen an A380 in EZE, Correct me if I'm wrong, but the terminals as far as I know, are not prepared for it. Maybe they offload all the passengers at the remote. The only airport ready in south America is GRU. Sometimes Emirates operates the A380 there.

duck ling - Why on Earth would you think Tehran is similar to Caracas? They are not remotely similar...

BBK - Ignorant rubbish. Venezuela would have the exact same issues if it was a capitalist based system with the same corrupt people in charge. There's a reason why the safest, wealthiest and happiest countries in the world tend towards socialism.

You make the same stupid argument as the idiots who think capitalism is always bad. Pure socialism has issues just like pure capitalism does. It's not an either/or scenario.

Oh I saw it coming, Surprise! I am old enough (highly probable older than you) to compare the Capitalist version of my Country and it was the exact opposite of what it became when the leftist s*cum took power, and managed the great majority poor (the ultimate goal of socialism).