The Treasury Department of the United States of America has officially eased some of its sanctions on the South American country of Venezuela. On the aviation side of things, the most notable aspect is the fact that Venezuelan flag carrier Conviasa is listed among the entities for which the US is now permitting certain transactions to occur. As such, avgeeks will surely be hoping for flights to the US.

After all, Conviasa is known among the aviation community for being a rare operator of widebody quadjets from the Airbus A340 family. Given that, currently, Lufthansa and Edelweiss Air are the only airlines that fly the A340 to the US, could the improving relations with Conviasa spark an American revival for the type? In the short term, this seems unlikely, but it is, nonetheless, an important step forward.

Could Conviasa’s A340s Serve The US?

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Unfortunately for avgeeks wanting to sample the widebody, the easing of sanctions does not mean an open goal for Conviasa to fly its A340s to the US. Indeed, as noted in coverage of the matter by Live & Let’s Fly and ch-aviation, the treasury’s new license pertains more directly to “services for the maintenance, repair, upgrade, refurbishment, improvement, safety, or airworthiness of aircraft.”

As such, while US individuals and businesses will now be able to work more closely with Conviasa, this doesn’t mean that the airline will suddenly be able to start flying its quadjets to American airports just yet. Still, a corresponding document shared by the US Treasury said that “the provision from the US or by a US person of goods, technology, or software” to Conviasa is now permitted. The Department adds:

“Transactions authorized include services related to the maintenance, repair, upgrade, refurbishment, improvement, safety, or airworthiness of aircraft in which Conviasa or a Conviasa Entity has an interest.”

The Present State Of Conviasa’s A340 Fleet

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Another aspect that makes Conviasa interesting as one of the last remaining operators of widebody quadjets from the Airbus A340 family is the fact that it currently has three different variants of the series in its fleet. Indeed, ch-aviation notes that Conviasa has six A340s at its disposal altogether, with this figure consisting of two examples of the A340-200, a single A340-300, and three units of the A340-600.

Of course, these aircraft are far from the newest in the skies, with even the youngest variant, the A340-600, clocking in at 24.1 years old on average. Meanwhile, Conviasa’s sole example of the A340-300 is 28.7 years old, and its two A340-200s have a mean age of 32.2 years. However, this is reflective of Conviasa’s situation as a whole: with Venezuela hampered by sanctions, it has to fly older aircraft.

Indeed, ch-aviation lists its average fleet age as a whole as 27.4 years old, and even its youngest aircraft, namely its 15 examples of the Embraer E190 regional twinjet, have already spent an average of almost 13 years apiece in the skies. For now, Conviasa’s A340s only fly from Caracas (CCS) to Havana (HVA), Managua (MGA), and Mexico City (NLU), with US flights not seeming to be imminently likely.

The US’s Only Current A340 Flights Originate In Europe

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As previously noted, Lufthansa and Edelweiss Air are the only two carriers that currently fly aircraft from the Airbus A340 family to destinations in the United States of America on a regular basis. According to present scheduling data made available by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, Edelweiss Air’s only US-bound route with the type links Zürich (ZRH) with Tampa (TPA) using the A340-300.

Meanwhile, Lufthansa’s A340s currently serve seven different destinations in the US from its hub at Frankfurt Airport. Of these, New York JFK is the only one to presently see service from both the A340-300 (one flight in June) and the A340-600 (30). Washington Dulles is the only other hub served by the A340-600, while Lufthansa’s A340-300s also serve Boston, Chicago O’Hare, Dallas, Detroit, and Seattle.