The first direct commercial flight from the US to Venezuela in over seven years has landed in Caracas, signaling a new era in diplomatic relations. US and Venezuelan officials celebrated this historic moment at Simón Bolívar international airport.
Key points
First direct commercial flight from US to Venezuela since 2019
Flight landed at Simón Bolívar international airport in Caracas
US and Venezuelan officials hailed a new era in diplomatic relations
José Freig called it a historic day for American Airlines
Relations had been strained due to past military operations
Mentioned in this story
American AirlinesJosé FreigJacqueline FaríaNicolás MaduroVenezuelaMiamiCaracas
US and Venezuelan officials have hailed a new era in diplomatic relations as the first direct commercial flight between the two countries in more than seven years landed in Caracas.
Nearly four months ago, US special forces attack helicopters and planes swept into the skies over Venezuela’s capital after Donald Trump ordered the capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro.
On Thursday afternoon it was a very different kind of aircraft that descended towards Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar international airport: an American Airlines passenger jet from Miami, heralding the start of a strange new chapter in the long toxic ties between Caracas and Washington.
“This is a historic day,” José Freig, the carrier’s vice-president of international operations, declared before handing Venezuela’s transport minister, Jacqueline Faría, a model of one of his company’s planes.
Faría holding the replica aircraft during a press conference with Freig (right).
Faría holding the replica aircraft during a press conference with Freig (right). Photograph: Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images
Speaking in Spanish, the US chargé d’affaires in Venezuela, John Barrett, hailed a “historic milestone”: “We are witnessing the reconstruction of our economic ties, Venezuela’s reopening to global commerce, and the reconnecting of our peoples.”
Barrett called the new flight “a direct result” of Trump and secretary of state Marco Rubio’s three-phase plan for post-Maduro Venezuela: stabilising Venezuela, rebooting its moribund economy and eventually securing a political transition back towards democracy. “We are only just getting started,” Barrett told dozens of journalists who had assembled by the runway before Flight 3599 touched down at 1.15pm local time.
Faría said: “This country wants to connect itself to the world and it is a great pleasure for us to once again open the doors to the entire world”.
Q&A
What is the significance of the first commercial flight from the US to Venezuela since 2019?
The flight marks a new chapter in diplomatic relations between the US and Venezuela, which have been strained for years.
When did the first commercial flight from the US to Venezuela land?
The flight landed on Thursday afternoon, marking the first direct connection in over seven years.
Who is José Freig and what did he say about the flight?
José Freig is the vice-president of international operations for American Airlines, and he called the day of the flight a historic one.
What was the context of US-Venezuela relations before this flight?
Prior to this flight, relations were marked by significant tensions, including a US military operation aimed at capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
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American Airlines staff holding Venezuelan flags in front of a balloon arch
American Airlines staff holding Venezuelan flags as they prepared for the departure from Miami. Photograph: Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images
The airport has long been a symbol of Venezuela’s devastating migration crisis: millions fled abroad as a result of the country’s economic meltdown under Maduro, and due to political repression, with foreign journalists and Venezuelan activists frequently deported or interrogated while trying to enter or leave the increasingly authoritarian state.
But on Thursday there was a much lighter mood, as the US flight approached Venezuela’s northern coast and Venezuelan passengers queued up to travel on the return flight.
A Venezuelan saxophonist celebrated the moment with muzak renditions of Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York, Bill Wither’s Ain’t No Sunshine and Hotel California by the Eagles. Oliver Blanco, a senior Venezuelan diplomat, said: “We are writing a new chapter in coexistence [and] economic opening.”
Passengers disembarking the American Eagle aircraft at Simón Bolívar airport.
Passengers disembarking the American Eagle aircraft at Simón Bolívar airport. Photograph: Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images
Félix Plasencia, Venezuela’s top diplomat in the US and a former ambassador to London, told journalists: “We are thrilled to have you here for this very first flight … and this should be the first one of many.”
As he prepared to check in, Eloy Montenegro, a 71-year-old civil engineer flying to Miami, said the new route would make travel between the US and Venezuela easier.
Of the years-long breakdown of relations between the two countries, Montenegro said: “That should never have happened but it happened. And things are much better now.”
“But that’s politics – and that’s none of my business,” he added diplomatically before strolling towards the check-in desk past an arch of red, blue and white balloons.
Passengers smiling as a red ribbon is cut in an archway of red, white and blue balloons
Passengers wait to board the return flight to Miami. Photograph: Miguel Gutiérrez/EPA
The last US commercial flight to take off from Caracas did so in March 2019, as relations collapsed amid Trump’s effort to force Maduro from power through a maximum-pressure campaign of sanctions and threats. Other US airlines had already halted their flights as a result of the political and social turmoil sweeping Venezuela amid one of the world’s worst economic collapses outside a war zone.
The new partnership between the White House and their longstanding anti-imperialist foes in Caracas represents a once improbable diplomatic handbrake turn.
Since Maduro’s capture, his vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, has assumed power with Trump’s blessing, and has overseen a series of major economic concessions involving Venezuela’s oil and mining industries.
Trump has repeatedly praised the actions of Rodríguez, who he warned would face an even worse fate than Maduro if she refused to toe the line.
“I see it as a viceroyship,” said John Feeley, a veteran former US diplomat in Latin America and ambassador to Panama, said of Venezuela’s highly unusual new relationship with the US. “It’s a powerful king-like figure that extracts rent from overseas territories and the person in charge who makes sure that the king or the crown, or in this case Washington, gets its due is Delcy.”
Marco Rubio has called the restoration of diplomatic ties, which were cut in early 2019.
The pilot of the US aircraft holding a Venezuelan flag from the cockpit window after landing in Venezuela.
The pilot of the US aircraft holding a Venezuelan flag from the cockpit window after landing. Photograph: Ariana Cubillos/AP
Many are skeptical the third phase of the plan – a political transition back towards democracy – will happen, with Rodríguez’s administration apparently in no rush to give up power or hold fresh elections. “It’s not time for elections,” the powerful interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, said on the eve of the flight’s arrival.
Feeley, who resigned from the foreign service during Trump’s first term, did not completely rule out that the US intervention in Venezuela might eventually benefit the people of that country, after years of economic chaos, international isolation and increasingly autocratic rule.
“We can never predict the future with any accuracy and I don’t … want to foreclose the possibility that this unconstitutional and, by international law, illegal action by the United States could not still result in a net positive for the Venezuelan people in terms of their democracy. I want to believe that can happen,” Feeley said.
“[But] I’m pessimistic because of the track record of the Trump team and Donald Trump himself and his own attitudes towards democracy. If Donald Trump is an autocratic style president internally in the United States, what leads one to conclude he would be promoting democracy in another country?”
