Venezuela's Main Airport Partially Reopens 10 Weeks After Deadly Earthquake

The binding constraint for Venezuela's aviation network is the structural integrity of a single runway in Maiquetía. For ten weeks, that constraint forced the country's primary international gateway to remain closed, severing domestic and international routes after a double earthquake shattered the concrete. On Tuesday, that constraint partially lifted. Simón Bolívar International Airport resumed commercial passenger flights using a reconditioned runway and a network of temporary modular terminals, restoring a critical node in the nation's transport infrastructure.[1][4]

The June 24 seismic doublet—magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5 striking within 39 seconds of each other—caused catastrophic damage across La Guaira state, killing over 6,500 people and leaving nearly 18,000 homeless. The tremors fractured the airport's main runway, collapsed ceilings in the passenger terminals, and disabled the control tower.[5][6]

Since the disaster, the airport had been restricted exclusively to humanitarian and military flights, with cargo operations resuming only on August 5. The shutdown of the Maiquetía hub effectively isolated the capital and forced airlines to reroute the few remaining flights to considerably smaller regional airports in Valencia, Barcelona, and Maracaibo.[1][4]

The resumption of passenger service relies entirely on four temporary, shed-type modular terminals erected in the airport's external parking areas. Covering approximately 10,000 square meters, the air-conditioned structures are equipped to handle ticketing, baggage processing, security checkpoints, and migration control.[1][4][6]

Because the original boarding gates remain structurally compromised, passengers are currently transported by shuttle buses from the modular terminals directly to aircraft waiting on the tarmac. The temporary setup is designed to process up to 2,168 passengers per day, operating at roughly 70 percent of its designed capacity during the initial phase.[4][6]

On opening day, the facility dispatched eight scheduled flights, split evenly between domestic and international routes. The inaugural departure was a domestic flight to Valera in Trujillo State, followed by international connections operated by the state-owned carrier Conviasa and foreign operators.[1][5]

Transportation Minister Francisco Garcés told the press that the current configuration represents a fraction of normal volume. “We hope that with this initial phase of operations ... we will recover 25% of the operations we had before the earthquake,” Garcés said, adding that the ministry aims to reach 40 percent capacity in a few months and 60 percent by the end of the year.[6]

The reopening has prompted a rapid return of international carriers. Airlines including Copa, Air Europa, Iberia, Avianca, LATAM, American Airlines, and GOL have either resumed operations this week or are scheduled to do so shortly, reconnecting Caracas to major hubs in the Americas and Europe.[4][5]

Security protocols have been heavily modified to accommodate the open-air transit of passengers between the parking lot modules and the runway. Vice Minister of Citizen Security Endes Palencia confirmed the deployment of 600 security personnel across the terminal grounds to manage the revised circulation routes.[4][5]

While the temporary modules alleviate the immediate transport bottleneck, the permanent infrastructure remains out of commission. Engineering teams are continuing comprehensive structural repairs on the main terminals, but full reconstruction is not expected to be completed until the first quarter of 2027.[1][5]