Venezuela is open again, and American Airlines and United Airlines aren’t wasting time restarting service.
Both carriers have announced they will return to Caracas, the capital city, after yearslong hiatuses. The airlines last flew to Venezuela in 2019 and 2017, respectively. Delta also left in 2017 but has not announced plans to return.
American resumed flights from Miami to Caracas on April 30; the flight uses an Embraer E175 operated by the carrier’s wholly owned regional subsidiary Envoy Air. American will add a second daily E175 flight to Caracas starting May 21.
United will resume daily flights to Caracas from its Houston George Bush Intercontinental hub on August 11, using a Boeing 737 Max 8.
American’s return to Venezuela is initially limited to the capital, Caracas, though service to Maracaibo — a coastal city in the northwest where it also used to fly — has also been cleared by the Department of Transportation. United has only applied for Houston so far.
The reopening comes after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy rescinded a prior order barring operations in Venezuela amid security concerns and political instability.
These are American and United’s Caracas flight schedules:
American, effective April 30.
- Depart Miami: 10:16 a.m. | Arrive Caracas 1:36 p.m.
- Depart Caracas 2:40 p.m. | Arrive Miami: 6:13 p.m.
The second daily frequency, effective May 21, will leave earlier in the day.
- Depart Miami: 8:55 a.m. | Arrive Caracas 12:15 p.m.
- Depart Caracas 1 p.m. | Arrive Miami: 4:34 p.m.
United, effective August 11, subject to government approval:
- Depart Houston: 11:45 p.m. | Arrive Caracas 5:30 a.m.
- Depart Caracas 8 a.m. | Arrive Houston: 12:30 p.m.
Data from the aviation analytics company Cirium shows American has about 680 scheduled flights between Miami and Caracas this year.
Before 2019, it flew up to 5,000 flights annually from cities like Dallas-Fort Worth, New York, and San Juan, and was the largest US operator in Venezuela.
United’s flight is not yet showing in Cirium, but based on the August launch date, it’ll run roughly 280 flights between Houston and Caracas through 2026.
United has historically had a much smaller presence in Venezuela than American. It operated 225 flights on the route in 2017, though it operated for only half the year; it flew about 500 in 2016.
Demand is expected to be driven primarily by “VFR” (visiting friends and relatives) traffic among the large Venezuelan diaspora in Florida, though the nation is also bracing for more international tourists and business travelers.
CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP via Getty Images
While United won’t face any competition from Houston, American will compete in Miami with the Venezuelan carrier Laser Airlines, which relaunched flights on May 1 using a leased Airbus A320 from US-based Global Crossing Airlines. The jet can hold about twice as many people as Envoy’s E175.
Laser cannot operate its own aircraft in the US because Venezuela’s aviation regulator is rated below international safety standards by US authorities.
Nearly two dozen other foreign airlines also serve Venezuelan cities, with about 40,000 flights collectively scheduled for 2026, per Cirium — less than a third of the roughly 130,000 the airport handled at its 2013 peak, during its era as a key gateway for oil, business, and international travel.
Revived service to Venezuela comes after Duffy, in January, tore up a 2019 order restricting flights and reopened its skies to commercial flights.
The decision followed the removal of then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a US military raid that helped reset relations between the Trump administration and the remaining Venezuelan leadership.
“By restarting service to Venezuela, American will offer customers the opportunity to reunite with families and create new business and commerce with the United States,” Nat Pieper, American’s chief commercial officer, said in January.
CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP via Getty Images
The airline said it worked with regulators and other key stakeholders to assess security and ensure a safe return.
The Trump administration has targeted undocumented Venezuelans living in the US as part of its mass deportation effort, and accused some of being violent gang members. Direct commercial flights offer Venezuelans a way to self-deport, should they choose to.
Some airlines that had continued serving Venezuela despite the country’s crisis briefly suspended flights earlier this year during US military operations.
Many have since returned, including LATAM, Avianca, and Copa Airlines, as well as European carriers like TAP Air Portugal, Iberia, and Turkish Airlines.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in April when the first US airline resumed Venezuela flights, and has been updated.
