After a seven-year indefinite suspension ordered by U.S. authorities over unsubstantiated security concerns, the first direct commercial flight connecting the United States and Venezuela is set to touch down in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, on Thursday, marking a historic turning point in bilateral relations between the two nations.
This long-awaited resumption of direct air links comes on the heels of a series of rapid diplomatic breakthroughs. Just months ago, the U.S. announced the formal reopening of its embassy in Caracas, a move that followed the restoration of full diplomatic relations between Washington and the South American country after years of severed ties.
The inaugural flight, numbered AA3599 and operated by Envoy Air, a regional subsidiary of American Airlines, was scheduled to depart Miami International Airport at 10:16 a.m. local Florida time, with a planned three-hour flight time before arriving in Caracas. The aircraft is scheduled to make the return trip to Miami later the same afternoon. Per earlier announcements from the airline, a second daily nonstop flight between Miami and Caracas will launch on May 21 to meet growing travel demand.
Direct commercial air travel between the U.S. and Venezuela has been frozen since 2019, when American Airlines — the last remaining U.S. carrier serving the country — suspended its routes between Miami, Caracas, and Venezuela’s key oil hub Maracaibo. Larger U.S. carriers Delta Air Lines and United Airlines had already exited the Venezuelan market two years earlier in 2017, amid a deepening political and economic crisis that drove millions of Venezuelans to seek refuge abroad. Over the past seven years, travelers between the two nations have been forced to rely on indirect connecting routes through neighboring Latin American countries, adding significant time and cost to cross-border journeys.
In a late January statement, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he had notified Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez that the U.S. would fully open commercial air access to Venezuela, clearing the way for U.S. citizens to travel to the country. “American citizens will be very shortly able to go to Venezuela, and they’ll be safe there,” Trump told reporters at the time. When American Airlines first announced the flight resumption plan in January, the carrier emphasized that the restored routes would create new opportunities for separated family members to reunite, while also opening new doors for cross-border commercial and economic activity.