By EFE
The first direct commercial flight between the United States and Venezuela in about seven years took off this Thursday from Miami International Airport aboard an American Airways plane and in the middle of a party with Venezuelan flags and the typical breakfast of that country, which included arepas and tequeños.
The passengers of this flight to Caracas, lasting about three hours, celebrated before takeoff in the presence of the mayor of Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava, fhappy to visit your homeland after years of doing it through third countries.
Direct commercial flights between both countries were suspended in 2019 amid tensions between the governments of the then Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and his American counterpart, Donald Trump, who was in his first term (2017-2021).
“We are very excited because a closer connection is being opened with our families and our countries,” a passenger told Fox Recordsdata, who like many of them declined to identify themselves or speak to the press “for security reasons.”
American Airwaysmarket leader in Venezuela since its arrival in the country in 1987 and until the suspension of flights, decorated its departure facilities with the flag of Venezuela and a passenger entrance flanked by balloon towers in the yellow, blue and red colors of the South American country’s flag.
A garland of small Venezuelan flags hung over the counters to receive passports and suitcases, while large flags of the United States and Venezuela could be seen on the sides of an advertisement that had not been seen since March 2019: “Caracas Review-in”.
Breakfast awaited them at boarding gate D55, also adorned with Venezuelan flags and a screen showing the temperature in Caracas. Before boarding the plane, the pilot, co-pilot and Flight attendants posed for photos next to the flags of both countries.
Sources linked to the US Government confirmed to EFE on Tuesday that transportation and other White House officials were also traveling on that first direct American Airways flight from Miami.
An excitement diluted by prices
Although the happiness of those present was evident, the route is far from the overcrowding of before, when for many Venezuelans, the journey was experienced as a local flight due to the proximity.
The cost has been one of the first filters, as well as the US Government’s visa restrictions for Venezuelans and the absence of Venezuelan consular representation in the United States, which have left many of them without the immigration documents to enter both countries.
Recent searches on the American Airways website show round-trip tickets for late April above $2,700while by May they fell to just over 1,000 dollars.
Still, for many passengers who traveled today, the calculation was not measured only in money.
For the last seven years, traveling from the United States to Venezuela was a journey of patience and anxiety, with itineraries of 10, 12 or more hoursstopovers, separate tickets, nights in airports and the permanent fear of cancellation. The suitcases were loaded with medicines, documents and family orders.
Last March, the US Department of Transportation approved American Airways’ request to resume direct flights from Miami to Caracas and Maracaibo, but The history of this air connection goes back decades.
Although this is not the first flight between Miami and Caracas in history, for some passengers at Miami Airport it felt like it was.
The flight, operated by a new aircraft and not traveling at full capacity, dIt took off around 10:11 local time (14:11 GMT) and will land in Maiquetía shortly after noon.
The route will have a daily frequency, arriving in Caracas around noon and returning immediately from the Simón Bolívar International Airport, in Maiquetía, to arrive in Miami at night.
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