US airlines resume Caribbean flights after Venezuela raid
[NEW YORK] US airlines began rebuilding their Caribbean operations on Sunday (Jan 4) after a US military incursion in Venezuela triggered airspace closures across the region, stranding thousands of passengers trying to return home from winter vacations.
American Airlines Group said that it added nearly 5,000 additional seats to its normal schedule as it resumed operations, in part through more than 20 extra flights and using larger aircraft. Delta Air Lines also said that it plans to fly bigger jets for some trips and will add three flights to and from the region on Sunday.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled after the Federal Aviation Administration restricted parts of Caribbean airspace as the US military carried out a stunning raid inside Venezuela that led to the capture of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. The aviation safety regulator lifted the restrictions early Sunday morning.
Vacation hotspots such as Barbados, Aruba, Puerto Rico, Antigua and Barbuda, and Trinidad and Tobago saw hundreds of flight cancellations on Saturday. The fallout highlighted how swiftly geopolitical conflict can impact civil aviation, leaving airlines scrambling to bring stranded travellers to their destinations.
Disruptions appeared to be easing on Sunday afternoon. Twenty-one flights from San Juan’s Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport had been cancelled as of 3.37 pm local time, according to FlightAware.com. About 200 departures from the airport were scrapped on Saturday.
Southwest Airlines added six round trips to San Juan plus eight more planned for both Monday and Tuesday, a spokesperson for the company said. The carrier also added two flights to and from Aruba on Sunday and is looking for opportunities to inject more capacity in both places over the coming days, he said.
United Airlines Holdings has resumed its Caribbean schedule and added 14 additional flights on Sunday to help affected customers. The carrier said that it also plans to operate three extra flights on Monday.
JetBlue Airways said that it also expects to resume normal operations and will continue rebooking customers and adding extra flights where possible. The carrier on Saturday said that it had cancelled about 215 flights due to the airspace closures.
Even as operations resumed, some passengers remained in limbo as airlines worked through aircraft and crew positioning challenges following the shutdown.
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Ethan Shapiro, 48, travelled with about 15 family members to Antigua on Dec 24, but learnt on Saturday that their return flight to Miami had been cancelled. When he called American Airlines, the carrier initially told him it couldn’t rebook the family until Jan 10.
“It was kind of like pandemonium,” he said.
Shapiro said that he eventually secured seats on a Sunday evening American Airlines flight, though that departure has also been delayed.
“I get it, right? This is a once-in-a-lifetime event. But if we don’t get on this flight, we can’t get home for another week or so,” he said.
It may take carriers two to three days to fully stabilise their networks as they work to move aircraft and crews left out of position by the sudden disruption, said Bob Mann, an aviation industry consultant and former airline executive.
Companies can swap in larger planes to help clear the backlog of stranded passengers, though not all airlines have that option. Carriers that are heavily reliant on single-aisle aircraft may struggle to free up their bigger jets, Mann said.
“There also must be markets that can deal with less capacity than originally planned to allow the larger equipment to be redeployed as relief flying,” he said. BLOOMBERG
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