{"id":29391,"date":"2026-01-07T10:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T15:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/?p=29391"},"modified":"2026-01-08T05:24:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T10:24:06","slug":"venezuela-caribbean-airspace-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/venezuela-caribbean-airspace-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela &#038; Caribbean Airspace Update"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s been a busy few days across Venezuelan and Caribbean airspace.<\/p>\n<p>On Jan 3, the US FAA issued a temporary flight ban for US operators in Venezuela\u2019s SVZM\/Maiquetia FIR, the TJZS\/San Juan and TNCF\/Curacao FIRs, plus the TTZP\/Piarco FIR west of 57W &#8211; which in practice covers the entire eastern Caribbean island chain.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-29393\" src=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Venezuela-Map-Nov25-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Venezuela-Map-Nov25-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Venezuela-Map-Nov25-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Venezuela-Map-Nov25-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Venezuela-Map-Nov25-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Venezuela-Map-Nov25-2048x1367.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Venezuela-Map-Nov25-900x600.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The move followed US airstrikes in Venezuela and was driven by <strong>safety-of-flight concerns linked to military activity and misidentification risk.<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Venezuelan and Caribbean airspace from late last night (local time) through this afternoon. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/oxu5ha3dXs\">pic.twitter.com\/oxu5ha3dXs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/flightradar24\/status\/2007530107733455278?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 3, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>That prohibition was short-lived. Within hours, the FAA lifted the ban and reverted to advisory Notams, returning to earlier guidance for <strong>US operators to exercise caution at all altitudes in the affected FIRs.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While the temporary FAA ban has ended, <strong>airspace warnings still remain in place.<\/strong> The US, Canada, EASA and several European states continue to advise avoiding Venezuelan airspace and to exercise caution across the surrounding region.<\/p>\n<p>These sit on top of earlier warnings from late 2025 flagging <strong>GPS interference, reduced ATC visibility, and unpredictable traffic.<\/strong> Operators have been reporting these issues for months, with no clear indication they\u2019ve fully gone away.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_29406\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/safeairspace.net\/venezuela\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29406\" class=\"wp-image-29406 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Safeairspace-7JAN26-1024x543.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"543\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Safeairspace-7JAN26-1024x543.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Safeairspace-7JAN26-300x159.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Safeairspace-7JAN26-768x407.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Safeairspace-7JAN26.jpg 1505w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-29406\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">On safeairspace.net, we continue to list Venezuela as Level 1: Do Not Fly.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>For several days after Jan 3, departures from parts of the eastern Caribbean were heavily delayed, with aircraft held on the ground due to parking constraints and ATC flow controls. <strong>Most of that disruption has now cleared.<\/strong> FAA flow programs are no longer active and the situation at the airports has largely returned to normal. The main exception is TNCM\/St Maarten, where ramp congestion continues to limit GA flights through Jan 12 as per the current Notam.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-29415\" src=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TNCM-1024x566.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"332\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TNCM-1024x566.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TNCM-300x166.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TNCM-768x425.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TNCM.jpg 1034w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re operating in the area and have updates to share with OPSGROUP members, please email <a href=\"mailto:news@ops.group\">news@ops.group<\/a> and we\u2019ll update this article as things change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s been a busy few days across Venezuelan and Caribbean airspace. On Jan 3, the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":29393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[54,81],"class_list":{"0":"post-29391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-briefings","8":"tag-caribbean","9":"tag-venezuela"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29391"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29416,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29391\/revisions\/29416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}