Venezuela Won’t Be Seeing American Airlines Flights for a While
Venezolanos won’t be seeing American Airlines planes fly into the country anytime soon. On Friday, March 15, the major carrier declared it had suspended travel to Venezuela in response to safety concerns for pilots.
American was the last major U.S. carrier to continue flying into the politically tense pais hispano — providing two daily trips departing from Miami to Caracas and Maracaibo. Although the suspension is considered temporary, it won’t be lifted until Venezuela is considered safe again, and it’s difficult to determine when this will be due to the current turmoil caused by President Nicolás Maduro, power outages, and inflation.
“The safety and security of our team members and customers is always number one and American will not operate to countries we don’t consider safe,” the airline said in a statement.
The news came after the U.S. State Department raised the travel advisory to a Level 4 on Tuesday, March 12 and asked U.S. citizens to leave the country and not make plans to return. “Do not travel to Venezuela due to crime, civil unrest, poor health infrastructure, and arbitrary arrest and detention of U.S. citizens,” read the travel advisory.
The Allied Pilots Association followed suit on Thursday, March 14, by telling the 15,000 American Airline pilotos they represent to refuse flying into the country. “Until further notice, if you are scheduled, assigned, or reassigned a pairing into Venezuela, refuse the assignment,” they wrote.
In January 2019, Maduro stopped considering the United States an ally after leaders recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the proper Venezuela president — joining 50 other countries in this political decision. In early February, the disputed president blocked Venezuela’s borders with shipping containers and a tank to stop the arrival of $60 million worth of humanitarian aid sent by the U.S. Venezolanos are currently struggling to live with an extreme shortage of food, medicine, and electricity.
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