U.S. assault on Venezuela prompts flight cancellations, Caribbean journey disruption

Hours after the United States delivered a number of army strikes and executed an operation to seize Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his spouse, Cilia Flores, dozens of flights have been canceled, triggering journey disruptions within the Caribbean that the Federal Aviation Administration warned might final for days. 

Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, early Saturday morning mentioned a brief airspace restriction was issued for the area, citing an FAA order.

The restriction was because of “a security situation related to military activity in Venezuela,” the airport mentioned in a post on X.

More than 310 airport departures and arrivals have been canceled as of 12:30 p.m., based on FlightAware, which tracks flight delays and cancellations. That quantity ballooned to greater than 370 by 2:20 p.m. and 400 by 6:50 p.m.

JetBlue, in an alert Saturday morning, mentioned it could waive airline change and cancellation charges for patrons touring between Jan. 3 and Jan. 4 to and from a collection of Caribbean cities, together with Aruba and San Juan.

American Airlines issued the same alert, indicating that adjustments have to be booked by Sunday. The airline mentioned at the very least 19 airports within the Eastern Caribbean have been affected by journey disruptions.

Delta Air Lines mentioned it had issued journey waivers Saturday afternoon for patrons trying to journey from 13 impacted airports between Saturday and Tuesday.

“Delta began cancelling flights early Saturday morning in compliance with FAA airspace closures in the Caribbean,” the corporate mentioned in an alert. 

The U.S. State Department warned Americans on Dec. 3 to keep away from touring to 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 Associated Press contributed to this story.