Airline crews ditch Venezuela layovers to stay out of harm’s way

The mounting political crisis in Venezuela has prompted European airlines to add a stop in the Caribbean so that pilots and flight attendants don’t have to spend the night in the strife-torn country. Iberia has begun using Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic as a staging post for its three weekly services from Madrid to Caracas, while Portugal’s TAP has introduced a crew change on the Dutch island of Curacao for two services from Lisbon operated by partner EuroAtlantic. “There’s an extra cost for this, but the crew’s safety is our priority,” TAP said. Iberia declined to comment on the expense involved. Air France-KLM Group, the other big European carrier serving Venezuela, said it hasn’t introduced any changes to its six weekly flights from Paris and doesn’t currently plan to do so.<br/>