A commercial passenger plane will take off from the US to Venezuela on Thursday morning for the first time in nearly seven years, as the countries continue to restore economic ties following the ouster of Venezuela’s strongman leader in January.
The inaugural American Airlines flight will last just under 3.5 hours, departing from Miami to Caracas on Thursday at 10:16 a.m. ET, before landing at Simon Bolivar International Airport at 1:36 p.m. local time. It is scheduled to return to Miami later that afternoon.
American Airlines said it would be the first US carrier to relaunch a daily service to the South American country, using an Embraer 175 dual-class aircraft operated by Envoy, the airlines’ wholly owned subsidiary.
The airline had announced its intent to resume flights in January, the same day US President Donald Trump instructed the Department of Transportation to take steps to reestablish air service to Venezuela.
American, once considered the largest US airline operating in Venezuela, had suspended service in 2019, when the US banned passenger and cargo flights traveling there.
The US formally rescinded the ban two weeks ago after the Department of Homeland Security determined that “conditions in Venezuela no longer threaten the safety and security of passengers, aircraft, and crew.”
It came months after the US military carried out a deadly raid in Caracas to capture and oust Venezuela’s authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro.
The US has since gradually normalized diplomatic and economic relations with Venezuela’s acting government led by interim President Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice president.
Under US pressure, Rodríguez has enacted a series of political and economic reforms, including an amnesty law that released hundreds of political prisoners and a hydrocarbons law that makes it easier for foreign companies to participate in the country’s oil industry.
The US has in turn been easing sanctions previously imposed on Venezuelan entities, which has opened the door to greater integration with the global market and an increase in foreign currency earnings.
Venezuela’s economy is still struggling to recover from years of mismanagement, but Rodríguez insists things will turn around in the coming months, saying she expects more jobs and higher incomes.
As of mid-2024, there were an estimated 764,000 Venezuelan migrants living in the United States, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
Liz Rebecca Alarcón, a Venezuelan-American entrepreneur in the Miami area who founded the media outlet Project Pulso, welcomed the resumption of flights.
“Anything that brings the diaspora closer to people in Venezuela is positive news,” she said. “I hope American’s flights are fairly priced and that these changes are part of the transition to democracy we all want.”
The US has outlined to Venezuela a three-phase plan in January to guarantee stabilization, recovery and a democratic transition in the country.
Venezuela’s acting government has however shown little sign that it will give up power or call for new elections. “The elections will be held whenever they are, and on that day the revolutionary forces will be prepared to win as we have always won,” Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said earlier this month.
Venezuela’s opposition has said it will be ready for that moment. On Tuesday, opposition leader and Nobel Prize laureate María Corina Machado announced on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” her intention to run for president if an election were held.
“Certainly, I will offer myself … so that the Venezuelan people can choose freely what we want,” she said.
Machado has been holding direct talks with world leaders, including Trump, to court favor and rally support over the past few months.
