LATAM Airlines is now evaluating entering Venezuela’s domestic aviation market by creating a locally certified subsidiary, LATAM Venezuela, according to reporting from the economic news portal Bitácora Económica. If it moves forward, the plan would mark the first time a foreign airline operates domestic routes inside the country — a market historically reserved for Venezuelan carriers alone.

The project is still in an early evaluation phase, not a firm decision, and no timeline has been set.

LATAM is reportedly looking at five initial routes: Caracas–Maracaibo, Valencia–Maracaibo, Caracas–Barcelona, Barcelona–Maracaibo, and Caracas–Porlamar.

Industry observers note the routes track “the corridors of greatest relative density in the country,” linking Zulia’s oil and commercial hub, Carabobo’s industrial base, and Margarita Island’s tourism and eastern oil activity.

Unprecedented Move

LATAM already runs domestic subsidiaries in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Paraguay, giving it a proven playbook for standing up locally certified carriers across the region. But Venezuela would be new territory. Domestic flying there has long been the exclusive domain of Venezuelan airlines such as Conviasa, Avior, Laser, Turpial, and Rutaca — carriers operating some of the oldest fleets in South America, including Boeing 737-200s and MD-82s that have largely been retired elsewhere.

LATAM’s regional fleet, by comparison, averages roughly 11 years old versus close to 30 years for Venezuela’s existing domestic operators, a gap that would reshape competition on any route LATAM enters.

The evaluation comes as LATAM has already been rebuilding its footprint in Venezuela following recent political shifts in the country. Its Colombian subsidiary resumed Bogotá–Caracas service at seven weekly frequencies after the reopening of Venezuelan airspace and airports to more international traffic, signaling renewed confidence in the market even before any domestic push.

Nothing here is finalized, however. Both LATAM and Venezuelan officials have stayed silent publicly, and reporting to date is sourced entirely to Bitácora Económica rather than a company announcement.

Still, the fact that a major regional carrier is even studying a Venezuelan domestic entry is notable on its own: it would signal growing confidence among foreign operators in the country’s aviation sector and could pressure aging domestic carriers to modernize or lose ground on some of the country’s busiest corridors.