| Airline: | LASER Airlines C.A. |
| Fleet Size: | 10 |
| Destinations: | 12 |
| Iata: | QL |
| Icao: | LER |
| Callsign: | LASER |
| Founded: | September 1993 |
| Commenced: | March 11, 1994 |
| Secondary Hubs: | La Romana International Airport |
| Focus Cities: | Santiago Mariño Caribbean International Airport |
| Frequent Flyer: | LASER Club[1] |
| Subsidiaries: | RED Air |
| Key People: |
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| Headquarters: | Caracas, Venezuela |
LASER Airlines (legally and officially Línea Aérea de Servicio Ejecutivo Regional, C.A.) is a regional airline based in Caracas, Venezuela.[2] It operates scheduled and passenger charter services within Venezuela, the Caribbean, and South America. Its main hub is Simón Bolívar International Airport.[3]
The airline was established in September 1993 and started operations on March 11, 1994.[4] At the beginning, the company had one Douglas DC-9-14, and only the following year purchased a Boeing 727-200. It began to expand domestic and international destinations, becoming one of Venezuela’s main airlines.
After the outbreak of the Venezuelan crisis in 2014, due to the embargo sanctions imposed by the United States, some of LASER’s international routes were changed to origin and end at Las Americas International Airport in Dominican Republic to ensure that relevant routes continue to operate.
LASER began to fly to Miami in an alliance with World Atlantic Airlines, which has been a partner since November 2016, an alliance was established through which the Miami-Caracas flight was created daily. A second frequency was added to this frequency by partnering with Swift Air to offer greater comfort to passengers on both frequencies, it was possible to expand the baggage allowance and operate 2 classes. Both are operated with equipment of Boeing 737s, thus dissolving the alliance with World Atlantic. Subsequently, due to the decision taken by the United States Government, on May 15, 2019, flights to Venezuela from the United States were suspended indefinitely.[5] Due to this, LASER created a hub at Las Americas International Airport, adding frequency to this destination, leaving 2 daily frequencies and with the possibility of connecting to Miami, maintaining the alliance with Swift Air.
On December 1, 2019, LASER was forced to cancel its Caracas-Guayaquil route due to complex migratory demands by the Government of Ecuador for Venezuelans. Still, a few weeks later, it announced a new route to Caracas-Bogotá with a daily frequency that began operating on February 10, 2020.
In January 2020, LASER formed a subsidiary low-cost airline named RED Air, under a joint venture with a Dominican corporation, SERVAIR.[6]
, LASER operates services to the following domestic and international scheduled destinations:[7]
, LASER Airlines consists of the following aircraft:[15]
| Aircraft | In service | Orders | Passengers | Notes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | W | Y | Total | |||||
| Airbus A330-200 | 1 | - | 18 | 36 | 214 | 268 | Leased from Hi Fly[16] | |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-81 | 4 | - | - | - | 163 | 163 | Last commercial operator | |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-82 | 3 | - | 12 | - | 137 | 149 | ||
| McDonnell Douglas MD-83 | 2 | - | 16 | - | 124 | 140 | ||
| Total | 10 | - | ||||||
LASER Airlines had in the past operated the following aircraft:[15]
| Aircraft | Total | Introduced | Retired | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boeing 727-200 | 3 | 1995 | 2000 | ||
| McDonnell Douglas DC-9-10 | 1 | 1994 | 2007 | ||
| McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 | 6 | 1999 | 2016 |