Airlines including Iberia and TAP had paused flights to Venezuela after warnings about ‘heightened military activity’ in the area.
Venezuela has pulled the operating rights for six foreign airlines that paused flights to the South American country amid rising tensions with the United States.
But on Thursday, foreign officials and airline representatives blasted that decision as a “disproportionate” response.
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A day earlier, Venezuela’s civil aviation authority announced it had revoked permits for air travel companies, including Spain’s Iberia, Portugal’s TAP, Colombia’s Avianca, Brazil’s GOL, Turkish Airlines and LATAM, which has headquarters in Chile and Brazil.
It accused the airlines of joining “actions of state terrorism promoted by the United States”.
The Venezuelan government has been on edge in recent months, amid speculation of a possible US military attack.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had warned airlines last week of “potentially hazardous situation” in Venezuelan airspace due to a “worsening security situation and heightened military activity”. That, in turn, prompted some airlines to cancel flights.
But on Thursday, officials like Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel criticised Venezuela’s response to the cancellations.
Rangel said his country’s embassy would reach out to the Venezuelan government and emphasise that flights had only been temporarily paused due to security concerns.
“What we have to do is, through our embassy, make the Venezuelan authorities aware that this measure is disproportionate, that we have no intention of canceling our routes to Venezuela, and that we only did this for security reasons,” he said.
Tensions between the US and Venezuela have been at a high point since the return of US President Donald Trump for a second term in the White House.
The Trump administration has overseen an enormous buildup of military forces in the Caribbean region, on the premise of combatting illegal drug trafficking.
But Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has decried the US troop movements as a precursor to attacks aimed at destabilising his government, and he has responded with military preparations of his own.
The US government has long opposed Maduro for his record of human rights abuses, recently recognising the Venezuelan opposition as the rightful winner of the 2024 presidential election, despite Maduro’s claims otherwise.
Since September, the US has carried out at least 21 lethal air strikes on boats and other nautical vessels it accuses of transporting drugs. An estimated 83 people have been killed.
The Trump administration has claimed, without evidence, that some of the people killed were linked to criminal groups in Venezuela. International rights officials and legal scholars consider those strikes to be extrajudicial killings, in violation of international law.
After the US warned airlines last week of security risks over Venezuela, flights were abruptly cancelled, amid fears of military action.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Monday that Venezuelan authorities had given airlines 48 hours to resume flights to the country or face the suspension of their operating rights.
“Keep your planes, and we will keep our dignity,” Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said in response to the cancellations.
The news service AFP quoted an anonymous source from Iberia who explained that the airline hoped to resume flights “as soon as possible, as soon as full security conditions are met”.
But the source added that Iberia could not operate in areas of high risk.
