Smoke was seen emanating from the main military garrison in Caracas, Venezuela – Fort Tiuna. On Saturday, 3 January 2026, aircraft sweeping through the area heard multiple explosions.
The U.S. military operation had captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and flown him from Venezuela to the U.S. early Saturday. This incident had disrupted Caribbean travel with many flight cancellations during a very busy travel time for the region.
Airlines refrained from moving flights over Venezuelan airspace on that fateful Saturday morning, as shared by FlightRadar24.com. Major airlines were compelled to cancel several hundred flights across the eastern Caribbean region. Passengers were warned that disruptions were likely to continue for days after the Federal Aviation Administration imposed travel restrictions.
Flight cancellations occurred for flights operating to & from Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Aruba. Besides this, there are dozens of other destinations in the Lesser Antilles island group north of Venezuela. Airlines compensated passengers who had to reschedule their flights by waiving change fees.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Saturday night that the airspace restrictions over Venezuela would end at midnight EST. He added that airlines would be able to resume normal operations on Sunday, 4 January.
Southwest Airlines shared in a media statement that it had added 6 extra round-trip flights to Puerto Rico on Sunday, 4 January’s flight operations schedule. Furthermore, another 8 round trips were added on Monday, 5 January 2026. Southwest Airlines is making these efforts to assist stranded travellers in returning home from their vacations. It also added two more flight movements for Aruba.
The Queen Beatrix Airport acts as the access location to the popular holiday destination of Aruba for U.S. vacationers. Officials said that it’s located just 24 kilometres off the Venezuelan coastline. They shared that they were expecting a return to normal a day after the disruption by Sunday, 4 January. The challenge too was in catering to stranded travellers or those who were blocked from flying to the island.
