With U.S. airlines have been banned from flying into Venezuela since the airspace closure that came after the highly contested presidential election of 2019, airlines immediately rushed to restart it after the Trump administration ordered its reopening earlier this year following the U.S. military capture of Nicólas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.
American Airlines, which had been running its route between Miami and Simón Bolívar International Airport (CCS) in Caracas between 1987 and 2019, was the first to restart the flight at the end of April.
United Airlines also committed to launching daily flights between Houston and Caracas by August 2026 on a Boeing 737 Max 8 plane with room for up to 178 passengers.
JetBlue expands its flights
New York-based JetBlue Airways is now the third U.S. airline to announce Venezuelan service with a Fort Lauderdale-Caracas route that it hopes to launch by the end of 2026.
“Fort Lauderdale continues to serve as JetBlue’s gateway to the Caribbean and Latin America, and we believe there is meaningful opportunity to expand our presence in the region with planned service to Caracas,” Dave Jehn, JetBlue’s vice president of network planning and airline partnerships, said in a statement on the new route.
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JetBlue currently flies to 11 domestic and international destinations from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport (FLL) while the Venezuelan route is also envisioned to serve the “large Venezuelan community” living in South Florida.
The aircraft chosen for the flight is the Airbus A320 narrow-body which typically carries between 150 and 180 passengers. The new route also comes amid JetBlue’s wider efforts to grow its network out of Fort Lauderdale to 150 daily flights by 2027.
JetBlue’s Venezuela route “subject to receipt of government approval”
While JetBlue hopes to start selling tickets on its site in the coming weeks, the carrier says that the “proposed route remains subject to receipt of government approval and completion of applicable processes to operate in Venezuela.”
As a result, details about the exact start dates and frequencies have not yet been announced by the carrier.
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The resumption of flights between the U.S. and Venezuela comes amid a highly volatile political situation where the U.S. military’s intervention failed to overthrow the Venezuelan government and Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez recently denounced Donald Trump’s social media posts referring to Venezuela as “a 51st state.”
