While we’ll see how this plays out, American Airlines has announced plans to resume flights to Venezuela. However, the airline is stopping short of providing exact details.
American is first US airline to announce Venezuela flights
American has become the first airline from the United States to announce plans to reinstate nonstop regularly scheduled passenger flights to Venezuela. The airline plans to resume daily flights, and while it’s not stated, I would be willing to bet that the first route will be the 1,360-mile journey between Miami (MIA) and Caracas (CCS), for obvious reasons, perhaps with an intermediate stop.
While American is making this announcement, no launch date has been revealed, and “the airline remains in close contact with federal authorities, and is ready to commence flights to Venezuela, pending government approval and security assessments.” As it’s described, flights will provide the opportunity for business, leisure, and humanitarian travelers to move seamlessly between the countries.
The Fort Worth-based carrier expects to announce more details about the service resumption in the coming months. Here’s how American’s Chief Commercial Officer, Nat Pieper, describes this development:
“We have a more than 30-year history connecting Venezolanos to the U.S., and we are ready to renew that incredible relationship. 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.”
American started operating to Venezuela in 1987, and ultimately suspended flights in 2019. For years, the airline was the largest US carrier in the country, and there even used to be an Admirals Club in Caracas.
It’s going to be fascinating to see how this all plays out
This whole Venezuela situation is obviously incredibly polarizing (we all hopefully agree Maduro is a bad dude, but…), and this is primarily a travel blog, so I don’t think we need to get too deep into that. However, I will make two points, as it impacts air service specifically.
First of all, I’m curious to see if American is actually able to follow through on this service in terms of the security assessment, working with labor unions, etc. I imagine that at least initially, crews would do a same day turn, or if that’s slightly above the legal limits, perhaps we’d see a technical stop at a nearby airport outside of Venezuela. However, I wouldn’t view this service resumption as a sure bet, as I imagine labor unions will have a lot of concerns.
Second, as an aviation geek, I’m much more intrigued by Venezuela’s airlines returning to the United States. Those gorgeous Conviasa Airbus A340-600s are more than welcome to fly overhead here in Miami anytime, as far as I’m concerned! I’d rather see them here than at their other typical destinations, including Moscow (SVO), Tehran (IKA), etc.!
Heck, I’ll even take one of those ex-American Airlines nearly 40-year-old LASER Airlines MD-80s. That’s the stuff that avgeek dreams are made of!
Bottom line
American Airlines plans to resume flights to Venezuela, making it the first US carrier to announce such plans. However, there doesn’t actually seem to be much substance to the announcement as of now, because no launch date has been revealed, and this is all pending government approval and security assessments.
It’ll be interesting to see if this service actually happens in the coming months, or if this is all overly optimistic…
How do you see American’s service resumption to Venezuela playing out?
