Venezuela authorises new migrant return flight from the United States

Venezuela authorises new migrant return flight from the United States

LN24 / 41 minutes

December 2, 2025

1 min read

Venezuela’s government confirmed on Tuesday that President Nicolás Maduro has approved the resumption of a U.S. flight carrying returning Venezuelan migrants, just days after officials in Caracas said remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump had effectively put the program on hold.

According to a statement from the transportation ministry, Venezuela’s aviation authority received a request from the U.S. government to restart flights sending Venezuelan nationals back to their home country. An Eastern Airlines plane departing from Phoenix has been cleared to land at Maiquetía International Airport, near Caracas.

These return flights had been operating twice weekly, but over the weekend Venezuelan officials said they were suspended because Trump declared that Venezuelan airspace should be considered closed—another escalation in the growing tensions between the two governments.

Trump’s Saturday comments, asserting that the skies over and around Venezuela were completely off-limits, created uncertainty and alarm in the capital as Washington increases pressure on Maduro’s administration.

Venezuelan authorities have previously stated that nearly 14,000 citizens returned from the United States on these flights between February and November, during a period of intensified immigration enforcement in the U.S.