ORANJESTAD, Aruba, Jan 3, 2026, 09:18 ET
- Aruba Airport said multiple airlines canceled all flights on Saturday, including Delta, United, JetBlue and Southwest.
- KLM and TUI also canceled flights to Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao as airspace restrictions tightened in the southern Caribbean.
- The FAA issued a new aviation safety notice after the U.S. attack on Venezuela, triggering reroutes and cancellations.
Aruba Airport said all flights operated by Avianca, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, LATAM, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and WestJet were canceled on Saturday as the region reacted to U.S. strikes in Venezuela. The airport also listed additional cancellations including Air Century 620, Frontier 320, KLM 765 and Winair 805.
The cancellations matter now because Aruba and nearby islands sit on busy air corridors linking North America, South America and Europe. When governments issue fresh safety restrictions, airlines often respond immediately to avoid contested airspace and protect crews and passengers.
Saturday is also a high-volume travel day for the Caribbean, with tourists arriving and departing on tight weekly schedules. Large-scale cancellations can strand travelers at airports, disrupt hotel changeovers and ripple through connections via U.S. and European hubs.
U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States carried out a large-scale strike against Venezuela and that President Nicolas Maduro and his wife had been captured and flown out of the country. Venezuela’s government condemned what it called U.S. “military aggression” and said it had declared a national emergency.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration issued a new NOTAM — an aviation safety bulletin that alerts pilots and airlines to hazards and restrictions — prohibiting U.S. aircraft from operating in Venezuelan airspace from 06:00 UTC on Saturday, flight-tracking service Flightradar24 said.
KLM on Saturday halted flights to Bonaire, Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten, and a scheduled KLM service, KL765 via Aruba to Bonaire, was canceled, Dutch Caribbean news site Bonaire.nu reported. The same report said KLM also paused flights to Georgetown, Guyana, and Bridgetown, Barbados.
KLM said in a travel alert that, due to the security situation in Venezuela, some of its flights to, from or via Aruba, Bonaire, Bridgetown, Curaçao, Georgetown, Port of Spain and Sint Maarten may be disrupted through Tuesday.
TUI also canceled all of its Saturday flights to Curaçao, Aruba and Bonaire, scrapping three planned TUI fly services, Bonaire.nu reported. The carrier said travelers on the islands who could not return were being accommodated locally while it reviewed Sunday operations.
Curaçao’s air traffic control provider DC-ANSP said it had arranged a fixed corridor with the U.S. military and the U.S. embassy to keep civilian traffic clear of military operations, and said the airspace remained safe, Bonaire.nu reported. The report said regional operators including Divi Divi Air and Z-Air were continuing to fly.
Bonaire International Airport said the airspace above Bonaire was not closed and local inter-island flights were still operating. The airport said the information was confirmed by Marco van de Kreeke, the general director of Flamingo Airport.
Caribbean Airlines, a key carrier for Trinidad and Tobago and the eastern Caribbean, said there were no disruptions to its services on Saturday and operations were continuing as scheduled.
Airlines have been issuing rolling updates as they weigh the evolving security picture and the knock-on effects of restricted corridors. Airports have urged passengers to check directly with carriers before heading to terminals.
“Markets are having to cope with significantly more headline risk than they are accustomed to,” said Marchel Alexandrovich, an economist at Saltmarsh Economics. Airlines are now confronting a similar surge in headline-driven risk as they decide which routes to fly and which to cancel.
The FAA had warned airlines in late November of a “potentially hazardous situation” when flying over Venezuela as military activity increased, and noted that direct flights by U.S. passenger or cargo carriers to Venezuela have been suspended since 2019. Some U.S. airlines had also already stopped overflying the country, Reuters reported at the time. ts2.tech
