Venezuela cash crunch hits airlines

Major carriers suspend or scale back flights as government fails to pay the $4bn it owes them.

The skies over Venezuela are a little emptier at the moment, after major airlines suspended or scaled back flights because the government owes 24 of them $4bn.

Tight currency controls mean that all ticket sales have to be done in the local bolivar, and go through a tightly controlled government account.

But the national economy is crashing, so the government does not have enough cash to exchange the money and pay the airlines back.

Al Jazeera’s Cath Turner reports from Caracas.

Source: Al Jazeera