Direct flights between Venezuela and South Florida are moving closer to reality after a subsidiary of American Airlines Group formally requested permission to restart commercial service – a development likely to be welcomed by the region’s large Venezuelan expat community, which has faced limited options for returning home.
On Friday, Envoy Air, a regional subsidiary of American Airlines Group and previously known as American Eagle, submitted an application to the US Department of Transportation (DOT) seeking exemption authority to operate scheduled foreign air transportation between Miami and Venezuela.
The request covers scheduled flights between Miami and Caracas, as well as Miami and Maracaibo. Envoy asked the DOT to approve the authority for a period of at least two years.
While no timeline has been confirmed for a launch, the filing signals that the airline is moving quickly to restore service on routes that were once among American’s most popular in the region. When American halted flights to Venezuela in 2019, it was the largest US airline operating in the country and had served the market continuously since 1987.
In the years since, there have been no direct commercial flights between the United States and Venezuela. Travellers have typically been forced to connect through third countries such as Panama, Colombia or Peru, while others have faced lengthy and difficult overland journeys from elsewhere in South America.
If approved, the service would operate on smaller aircraft under the American brand, with flights expected to be bookable through American Airlines’ normal reservation channels.
The move represents one of the clearest steps yet toward restoring direct air connectivity between the United States and Venezuela – a link that has been absent for nearly seven years and remains one of the most anticipated routes for Venezuelan travellers in Florida.
