San Francisco Frontiers - First direct US-Venezuela flight in years arrives in Caracas

The American Airlines flight took off at 10:26 am (1426 GMT) from Miami en route to Caracas, where the United States has resumed diplomatic relations after years of tension. Envoy Air flight 3599 landed less than three hours later.

The flight's manifest included senior officials from Washington set to fly to Caracas to meet the government, a prospect unthinkable just months ago.

Among other passengers, Claudia Varesano, a 44-year-old with family and businesses in Venezuela, said she had been traveling often between the two countries but had to deal with lengthy layovers.

"A three-hour flight would become an eight-hour flight. I'm celebrating today because I'm a frequent traveler. I can go, have breakfast and come back," she said.

Isabel Parra, a travel agent originally from Venezuela, said she had not returned since 2018 and was "super excited."

"For years we had to go through Curacao, the Dominican Republic or Bogota, so having this direct flight is a real pleasure," she said.

She said the inaugural flight cost $3,000 but that she expected costs to go down quickly, particularly once American Airlines starts a second round-trip daily flight on May 21.

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The inaugural flights are featuring a special Venezuelan menu including corn pancakes known as cachapas and a Venezuelan-style chicken salad, according to the airline.

Representatives of the city of Miami, a hub for Latin Americans that sees itself as a gateway to the region, greeted passengers at the gate, as did the Venezuelan ambassador to Washington, Felix Plasencia.

Some 1.2 million Venezuelans live in the United States, and the thaw is expected to boost the US business presence in the South American nation, which has the world's largest proven oil reserves.

But President Donald Trump has also been moving aggressively to remove Venezuelans from the United States, terminating a program that shielded migrants from deportation back to the crime-ridden nation.

US forces on January 3 carried out a deadly raid in Caracas, snatching longtime US nemesis Maduro and flying him and his wife to New York to face charges of drug trafficking, which they deny.

Maduro was replaced by his vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, who has largely cooperated with the United States despite her ideological background.

Trump has voiced satisfaction with her policies toward US companies and has tried to enforce compliance by threatening violence. Venezuela has moved to open its oil and mining sectors to private investment.

Trump in turn has started an easing of sanctions on Venezuela, with measures imposed personally on Rodriguez dropped.

American Airlines, which is based in Texas and has a large network in Latin America, started flights to Venezuela in 1987 and carried the highest number of passengers between the two countries.

It ended flights in 2019 as relations deteriorated, with the United States and other Western and Latin American nations declaring Maduro to be illegitimate after an election marred by irregularities.

The State Department continues to call on Americans to reconsider travel to Venezuela due to widespread crime but in March ended its blanket warning against any travel.

The new flight comes despite trouble in the aviation industry, which has been hit hard by a sharp rise in oil prices after the United States and Israel attacked Iran.

K.Gray--SFF