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When do Venezuela's airports open?

Short answer

Venezuela's airports are open: Maiquetía (Simón Bolívar) and the other international airports operate under INAC. What opens and closes are specific routes: after the FAA's November 2025 security warning several foreign airlines suspended flights, and their return has been gradual and uneven through 2026 (as of May 2026).

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Open, but with uneven connectivity

Venezuela's airports are not closed. The National Civil Aeronautics Institute (INAC) keeps Maiquetía's Simón Bolívar airport, which serves Caracas, operating, along with the international airports of Maracaibo, Valencia, Barcelona and Porlamar, plus the domestic network flown by Conviasa, Laser, Avior and Rutaca. The question usually refers to something else: when the foreign airlines that have been suspending routes will come back.

Two recent closures

The first was health-related. In mid-March 2020 the government suspended commercial flights because of the pandemic; domestic flights returned gradually from November 2020, and international ones, to a few destinations, from December that year, though connections such as Spain or Colombia took months to normalize.

The second is security-related. On 21 November 2025 the US FAA warned of a potentially hazardous situation in Venezuelan airspace due to military activity in the Caribbean. Iberia, TAP, Avianca, LATAM, GOL and Turkish Airlines suspended their flights, and the Venezuelan government revoked traffic rights for those airlines in early December. The events of January 2026 added temporary airspace closures. Since then the return has been gradual and uneven: some Latin American airlines resumed routes in the first months of 2026, while European carriers have made their return conditional on risk assessment and the recovery of permits (as of May 2026).

How to check the real status

For a specific trip, it's reliable to check three sources: the airline, which knows whether its route is authorized; INAC, which publishes suspensions and resumptions; and advisories from authorities in the airline's home country, such as FAA NOTAMs or EASA recommendations, which determine whether a carrier can fly there.

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