The Caribbean airspace became a web of disruption and uncertainty this past weekend as US military action in Venezuela triggered widespread flight cancellations across one of the year’s busiest travel periods. Reuters reports that the cascade of disruptions began late Friday night when the Federal Aviation Administration issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) that closed most of the airspace over the Caribbean to US passenger planes.
The flight restrictions were implemented as the US military conducted operations in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital. The timing couldn’t have been worse for travelers, with the restrictions implemented during a peak holiday travel weekend. Thousands found themselves stranded on islands as airlines scrambled to adapt.
By Saturday, major Caribbean hubs descended into chaos, with San Juan’s Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport canceling nearly 58% of its scheduled flights (approximately 200 cancellations) and St. Thomas’ Cyril E. King International Airport losing two-thirds of its flight operations (56 cancellations), according to FlightAware data. The immediate suspension of air traffic created a ripple effect that extended far beyond Venezuela’s borders, affecting destinations throughout the Caribbean basin and stranding travelers with little warning or immediate recourse.
Why Caribbean Flights Face Military-Related Restrictions
Airspace restrictions are complex safety measures implemented when military activities pose potential hazards to civilian aircraft. The FAA’s initial NOTAM represented an unusually broad regional restriction. It effectively created a no-fly zone across multiple Caribbean flight information regions. While the complete ban expired at midnight on Sunday, it was immediately replaced with an advisory NOTAM that remains in effect until February 2.
The advisory cautions airlines about ongoing military activity around the San Juan, Curaçao, Maiquetia, and Piarco flight regions. These advisories serve as critical safety tools, enabling air traffic controllers and airlines to make informed routing decisions. Venezuelan airspace itself has been effectively closed to passenger planes since late November, when the FAA warned of “the worsening security situation and heightened military activity in or around Venezuela,” describing it as “a potentially hazardous situation” threatening aircraft at all altitudes.
How One Country’s Airspace Closure Creates Regional Disruption
When one country’s airspace closes, a domino effect disrupts the entire regional air transportation network. The Caribbean, with its intricate web of island connections and heavy reliance on air travel, becomes particularly vulnerable to such disruptions. While only US airlines were subject to the complete restriction, the cascading effects created bottlenecks at major hubs and severely limited connecting options. The impact extended well beyond flights directly serving Venezuela.
Routes to destinations such as Aruba, Curaçao, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands were disrupted despite their geographic distance from the military operation. The situation illustrates how interconnected the Caribbean aviation network remains and why travelers often experience disruptions even when their specific destination isn’t directly involved in a geopolitical situation.
What Airlines Are Doing To Help Stranded Travelers
In response to the extraordinary circumstances, major carriers implemented flexible rebooking policies and deployed additional capacity to assist stranded passengers. American Airlines added special flights with additional capacity across the region, including deploying a Boeing 777-300ER — the largest aircraft in its fleet — to support recovery efforts. Travel Market Report notes that the airline also began operating special inter-island flights in the Eastern Caribbean for the first time in more than a decade, connecting airports in Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands to San Juan.
Delta introduced a travel waiver allowing changes with no fare difference to flights to, from, or through 13 Caribbean airports for travel between January 3 and 6, with rebooked travel to be purchased by January 9. JetBlue announced a return to “normal operations” by Sunday at 11:30 a.m. EST and issued travel waivers for passengers with flights booked to or from 15 Caribbean airports.
