Avior Airlines C.A. (legally Aviones de Oriente C.A.) is an airline based in Barcelona, Venezuela. It operates scheduled and charter services within Venezuela and the southern Caribbean out of its main hub at Generál José Antonio Anzoátegui International Airport. It is currently the largest private capital airline in Venezuela in terms of fleet, destinations and its more than 1,800 employees nationally and internationally.

History

Founded by Jorge Luis Añez Dager and Rafael Ciarcia Walo, the airline was established as Avior Express, and started operations on June 30, 1995, initially using a single five-seat Cessna Skymaster for charter flights to Margarita Island and Canaima. It is fully owned by Jorge Añez Dager.

Destinations

As of November 2025, Avior Airlines flies to the following destinations:

{|class="sortable wikitable"

!Country

!City

!Airport

!Notes

!class="unsortable"|Refs

|-

|rowspan=2|||Bogotá||El Dorado International Airport||||

|-

|Medellín||José María Córdova International Airport||||

|-

|||Willemstad||Curaçao International Airport||align=center| ||

|-

|rowspan=24|

|-

|Barcelona||General José Antonio Anzoátegui International Airport||||

|-

|Barquisimeto||Jacinto Lara International Airport||align=center| ||

|-

|Caracas||Simón Bolívar International Airport||||

|-

|El Vigia||Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo Airport||align=center| ||

|-

|Las Piedras||Josefa Camejo International Airport||align=center| ||

|-

|Maracaibo||La Chinita International Airport||align=center| ||

|-

|Puerto Ayacucho||Cacique Aramare Airport||align=center| ||

|-

|Puerto Ordaz||Manuel Carlos Piar Guayana Airport||align=center| ||

|}

Fleet

Current

thumb|An Avior [[Boeing 737-400 landing at Miami International Airport in 2014]]

, the Avior Airlines fleet includes the following aircraft:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:0.5em auto; text-align:center"

|+ Avior Airlines fleet

|-

!rowspan=2|Aircraft

!rowspan=2|In <br> service

!rowspan=2|Orders

!colspan=3|Passengers

!rowspan=2|Notes

|-

!<abbr title=Executive>C</abbr>

!<abbr title=Economy>Y</abbr>

!Total

|-

|Boeing 737-200

|2

|&mdash;

|12

|96

|108

|

|-

|rowspan=2|Boeing 737-400

|rowspan=2|8

|rowspan=2|&mdash;

|rowspan=2|12

|132

|144

|rowspan=2|

|-

|138

|150

|-

!Total

!10

!&mdash;

! colspan="4" |

|}

Former

thumb|A former Avior [[Beechcraft 1900D parked at Santiago Mariño Caribbean International Airport in 2001]]

Avior Airlines formerly operated the following aircraft:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:0.5em auto; text-align:center"

|-

!Aircraft

!Total

!Introduced

!Retired

!Notes

|-

|Aero Commander 500

|1

|1994

|

|

|-

|Airbus A340-300

|1

|2016

|2019

|Transferred to Conviasa

|-

|Beechcraft 1900C

|2

|1997

|1999

|

|-

|Beechcraft 1900D

|12

|1997

|2010

|

|-

|Cessna 208B Grand Caravan

|6

|1998

|2006

|

|-

|Cessna Skymaster

|1

|1994

|

|

|-

|Dornier Do 28

|3

|1995

|1999

|

|-

|Embraer EMB 120ER Brasilia

|3

|2001

|2007

|One leased from Avensa

|-

|Fokker 50

|6

|2012

|2015

|Transferred to Avior Regional

|-

|}

Accidents and incidents

  • On July 15, 1998, a Beechcraft 1900D was hijacked by four armed masked hijackers during a domestic flight. The hijackers were among 22 people on board the aircraft, which was flying from Caracas to Barinas. The hijackers forced the plane to divert to a remote airstrip at a cattle ranch. The hijackers released the passengers and crew and took the plane to Colombia, where it was later recovered.
  • On July 30, 1999, another Beechcraft 1900D (registered YV-466C) was hijacked, this time by three men and two women. The aircraft was flying from Caracas to Guasdualito, via Barinas. Coordinates were given to the flight crew and landed the plane in Arauca, Colombia.
  • On January 7, 2009, a Boeing 737-200 (registered YV1360), flying from Oranjestad to Valencia, made an emergency landing after an engine fire was reported. The aircraft diverted to Simón Bolívar International Airport where the aircraft landed safely. All 81 occupants on board were uninjured.
  • On October 31, 2014, a Boeing 737-400 (registered YV2946) suffered a tire burst during takeoff at General José Antonio Anzoátegui International Airport. The flight crew aborted the takeoff and the aircraft stopped with a burst and deflated tire on the left-hand main landing gear. None of the 144 occupants on board were injured.
  • On March 3, 2018, a Boeing 737-400 flying from Barcelona to Guayaquil ran off the runway during landing at José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport. No injuries were reported, and the aircraft suffered no structural damage. The causes of this inconvenience were mainly due to the wet track and the heavy rain that fell in the city.
  • On November 22, 2019, a Boeing 737-400 (registered YV3012) was servicing a flight between Valencia and Bogotá. Upon landing at El Dorado International Airport, its right main landing gear suffered a serious malfunction, causing it to collapse, which led to an evacuation once the aircraft came to a halt.
  • On December 6, 2019, a Boeing 737-400 (registered YV3011) took off at 8AM flying from Lima to Caracas when it suffered a depressurization 45 minutes after takeoff. There were 133 passengers and 8 crew members on board. Some passengers suffered a lack of oxygen, including a six-month-old child. The aircraft had to make a sharp descent landing emergency in the city of Tarapoto, Peru. The airline enabled an aircraft to comply with the scheduled itinerary.

See also

  • List of airlines of Venezuela
  • List of airlines banned in the European Union

References

  • Official website