By David Shepardson and Vivian Sequera
WASHINGTON/CARACAS, April 30 (Reuters) – U.S. passenger air service to Venezuela resumed on Thursday morning after seven years, with an American Airlines flight from Miami to Caracas.
American is resuming daily service to Venezuela, offering flights on an Embraer 175 through Envoy, its wholly-owned regional subsidiary. It plans to add a second daily flight starting May 21. The first flight, which includes government officials and reporters, landed on Thursday afternoon.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy lifted a 2019 order in January that had barred U.S. airlines from flying to Venezuela, after President Donald Trump directed him to do so, and then in March approved American’s request for flights.
‘ATTENTION FOR OUR PEOPLE’
“For Venezuela, it is a pleasure to receive these flights because they mean connectivity, which in turn means development, which means productivity, which means attention for the people in the world and attention for our own people,” Venezuela’s Transport Minister Jacqueline Faria said. She was speaking at a welcome event at Maiquetia airport near Caracas shortly before the flight landed, where she was accompanied by U.S. charge d’affaires John Barrett.
Faria added that Venezuela anticipates 100,000 passengers a year, roughly 7,200 to 8,000 per month, on the renewed flights.
“Today marks another historic milestone in relations between the United States and Venezuela. We are witnessing the rebuilding of our economic ties, the reopening of Venezuela to global trade, and the recognition of our people — the people of both countries,” Barrett said. “Today we are sending another clear signal to global markets that Venezuela is once again open for business.”
The Transportation Security Administration was in Caracas in March to review airport security procedures, a necessary step to resume flights. American announced plans to resume service weeks after the U.S. military seized the country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro.
American, which started operating in Venezuela in 1987, was the largest U.S. airline in the country before it suspended its service in 2019 after the U.S. ban. It said the planned daily flights will provide opportunities for business, leisure and humanitarian travel.
The State Department lifted Venezuela from its “Do Not Travel” list for Americans in March, issuing a less serious “Reconsider Travel” advisory due to risk of crime, kidnapping, terrorism, and poor health infrastructure.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washignton and Vivian Sequera in Caracas; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Rod Nickel)
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