American Airlines to fly to Venezuela for first time since 2019, marking return of U.S. service

American Airlines is planning to resume service to Venezuela from the United States for the first time since 2019, weeks after the U.S. captured Venezuela’s president.

American would be the first U.S. carrier to restart service to Venezuela, which had become isolated after airlines paused flights to the country in recent years, citing unrest there.

“American will share additional details about its return to service in the coming months as it works closely with federal authorities on all necessary permissions and security assessments prior to resuming service,” the carrier said Thursday.

American halted service to Venezuela in March 2019 after its pilots’ union told its members to refuse trips to the country following the State Department advising U.S. citizens to leave the country and pulling its diplomats from Venezuela because of unrest.

Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, which had paused service in 2017, didn’t immediately comment.

Federal officials temporarily closed airspace in the Caribbean earlier this month following the U.S. strikes in Venezuela, a measure that disrupted air travel and forced carriers to cancel hundreds of flights at the tail end of the holidays.