Multiple airlines are scrambling to reestablish vital international links to Caracas.
Avianca announced last week it would resume flights between Bogotá, Colombia, and Caracas on February 12. The Colombian carrier had suspended operations in Venezuela in November on recommendations from U.S. and Colombian aviation regulators regarding the security situation in the country.
Other major airlines, including Air Europa, Iberia, LATAM, TAP Air Portugal, and Gol, had also suspended flights to Caracas due to the security situation and regional tensions, citing concerns for the safety of crew who might need to overnight in the city. At the time, the government of former President Nicolás Maduro gave these airlines 48 hours to resume service to Venezuela, and then cancelled their operating authorities in the country when they failed to comply.
In November 2025, the FAA issued a warning for Venezuelan airspace after a social media post by President Donald Trump advising aircraft operators from the U.S. and other countries to consider the airspace above Venezuela closed.
Once the six carriers stopped serving Caracas, that left mainly Copa Airlines of Panama as the only link to Caracas aside from Venezuelan-flagged carriers, but even Copa and its low-fare subsidiary Wingo, Satena of Colombia, and Bolivian carrier Boliviana de Aviacion suspended Caracas service on December 4, citing safety concerns, including reported issues with navigation equipment signals in the Venezuala’s airspace.
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Copa returned to Venezuela in mid-January, and the six carriers whose authorities were revoked by the Maduro government have all planned to return service to Caracas by mid-June.
Following the ouster of Maduro by the United States, American Airlines announced plans to resume daily nonstop service to Caracas from the United States, “pending government approval and subject to security assessments.” American served Caracas for more than three decades before suspending service in 2019. American has not announced how many flights it plans to operate to Caracas or from which U.S. gateways it intends to resume service.
It’s worth noting that the U.S. State Department continues to rate Venezuela Level 4—Do Not Travel. This is the highest risk advisory level. The department advises American passport holders: “Do not travel to or remain in Venezuela due to the high risk of wrongful detention, torture in detention, terrorism, kidnapping, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, and poor health infrastructure. All U.S. citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents in Venezuela are strongly advised to depart immediately.”
The advisory also notes that the U.S. Embassy suspended operations in Venezuela in 2019, and no consular services are available to Americans in the country, and strongly advises American citizens or permanent residents traveling in Venezuela on other countries’ passports or documents to leave the country.
Travelers planning to visit Venezuela in the future can continue to check the State Department’s assessment. Travelers won’t, however, be able to reference the CIA’s World Factbook. The intelligence agency abruptly took that reference offline after more than six decades.
Other U.S. carriers ended service to Venezuela even earlier than American, citing falling demand. United Airlines and Delta Air Lines both stopped flights to Caracas in 2017. Air Canada had departed Venezuela even earlier, last flying to Caracas from Toronto thrice-weekly until 2014.
American said that once it resumed flights, it anticipated passengers would include those traveling for business, leisure, and humanitarian purposes. Caracas was a popular leisure destination for American travelers from the 1950s through the 1980s, and the city’s airport served as a major base for Pan American World Airways operations in South America.