Venezuelan airlines are asking for permission to fly to the U.S. | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

After the air travel disruption all over the Caribbean that came after U.S. forces captured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores on Jan. 3, international airlines have mostly resumed flights from and into Venezuela.

Last week, President Donald Trump ordered the reopening of the country’s airspace to U.S. airlines, Reuters reported. It had been closed since 2019, when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security suspended all commercial passenger and cargo flights into the country over the political crisis that arose around the highly contested presidential election.

As the main U.S. carrier flying to Caracas from Miami prior to 2019, American Airlines immediately announced its intent to restart daily flights to Venezuela as soon as cleared to do so by the federal government.

Avior and Laser Airlines asking to launch flights from Venezuela to Miami

With these major changes in guidance looming, several Venezuelan airlines are now also requesting Department of Transportation (DoT) permission to launch direct service into the United States, according to Aviation Week.

Charter carrier Avior Airlines submitted a Feb. 3 DoT filing expressing interest in launching passenger, cargo, and mail service flights into Miami International Airport (MIA) from Caracas, Maracaibo, and Barcelona in northern Venezuela.

The carrier launched as a regional airline and has served remote parts of the country since 1995. It says it wants to launch this service “upon receipt of all necessary regulatory and safety approvals” and requests a two-year exemption period during which it can run flights.

Caracas-based Laser Airlines has also filed for DoT permission to launch twice-daily passenger flights between Caracas and Miami on its McDonnell Douglas MD-80 jets, FlightGlobal reported.

At least two airlines have requested DoT permission to launch direct service between Venezuela and Miami.

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Laser Airlines also asks for DoT permission to launch Miami flights

Depending on the success of the operation, Laser Airlines may up-gauge to larger capacity B767 aircraft at a later date, the Jan. 25 filing indicates, according to FlightGlobal.

All of this marks a major warming in relations between the U.S. and Venezuela, even without a change of government (Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez stepped in to fulfill presidential duties after his removal). The U.S. State Department has long kept Venezuela at the level four “do not travel” advisory due to “the extreme danger to U.S. citizens.”

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“Do not travel to or remain in Venezuela due to the high risk of wrongful detention, torture in detention, terrorism, kidnapping, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, and poor health infrastructure,” the advisory presently reads. “All U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents in Venezuela are strongly advised to depart immediately.”

Even so, the latest numbers released by the Maduro government state that more than 1.5 million foreign tourists came to Venezuela in 2024, a 108% increase from the year before.

While this number went down dramatically over the risk of war under the Trump administration, those from nearby South American countries periodically travel to popular tourist sites near the border.

Prior to the string of political crises and government crackdowns dating back to the 1990s, Venezuela was a popular tourist destination known for the largest uninterrupted waterfall and “Seven Wonders of the World” landmark Angel Falls.