Major airlines have suspended flights to and from Venezuela amid heightened security warnings and intensified US military activity in the Caribbean…reports Asian Lite News
Airlines have canceled flights to and from Venezuela’s Maiquetia Simón Bolívar international airport amid escalating warnings from the United States, which has deployed a substantial naval force off the Caribbean coast. Major carriers serving Caracas, including Iberia, TAP, Avianca, GOL, LATAM, Air Europa, Turkish and Plus Ultra, have all suspended operations, while others are diverting routes to avoid Venezuelan airspace that US President Donald Trump warned must be considered “closed.” Panama’s Copa Airlines and its low-cost subsidiary Wingo said they also halted flights for two days after pilots reported interruptions in navigation signals near Venezuelan territory. The aviation tracking site FlightRadar24 showed minimal activity over the country on Thursday, with virtually no incoming or outgoing flights operated by non-Venezuelan carriers.
At the end of November, US aviation authorities advised civilian aircraft to “exercise caution” in Venezuelan airspace due to what they described as a “worsening security situation and heightened military activity in or around” the country. Days later, Donald Trump issued a blunt warning on social media: “To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.” The US president did not elaborate, and Washington has issued no formal prohibition, though the area concerned spans roughly 1.2 million square kilometres, including maritime zones near the US naval deployment.
Caracas has reacted by accusing airlines of political alignment. Venezuela’s aviation authority banned several carriers, claiming they were “joining the actions of state terrorism promoted by the United States.” Despite this, Venezuelan analysts say the airspace is effectively unusable for many international operators. Oscar Palma, a security expert at Colombia’s Rosario University, said Venezuela’s airspace is “closed in practice” even without an official declaration. He noted that formally closing a country’s airspace “involves the capacity, availability, and willingness to shoot down any aircraft crossing,” adding, “Is he (Trump) really willing to enforce this type of rule by force? We have doubts, but with the Trump administration, one never knows.”
The broader military backdrop has also intensified concerns. Since September, the US military has bombed more than twenty boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, alleging they were transporting drugs, though no evidence has been publicly released. At least 83 people have died, many of them fishermen according to their families and several governments.
Commercial aviation in Venezuela has dwindled to a trickle. Only four international departures and three arrivals were listed at Maiquetia on Thursday, serving Curacao, Havana and Bogota, all operated by Venezuelan carriers. In the immediate aftermath of Trump’s announcement, US flights carrying deported migrants back to Venezuela were blocked, before being reauthorised days later at Washington’s request. A flight with migrants landed on Wednesday, with on Friday.
A Venezuelan aviation security expert, who asked not to be named, said that despite the absence of an official closure, “there is a risk” airlines, insurers, lessors and pilot unions may choose not to take. He added that “there is talk of electromagnetic interferences that render GPS inoperative during flight, which is a risk to consider,” underscoring the growing unease surrounding a region where commercial aviation and geopolitics have become increasingly inseparable.
