TAP Restarts Venezuela Flights on Monday, Rerouting to Valencia After June's Deadly Quakes

TAP Air Portugal will resume flights to Venezuela on Monday, more than a fortnight after two powerful earthquakes forced the airline to suspend the route and closed the country's main international gateway.

The national carrier will not, however, be landing where it usually does. With Simón Bolívar International Airport at Maiquetía, near Caracas, shut by structural damage, TAP will instead fly into Arturo Michelena International Airport in Valencia, some 170 kilometres west of the capital. The first flight departs Lisbon on Monday, 13 July.

A route halted by disaster

The suspension followed two earthquakes — measuring magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 — that struck Venezuela on 24 June, setting off more than 1,100 aftershocks. The human toll has been severe: at least 3,811 people were killed and 16,740 injured, among them at least 102 Portuguese citizens or people of Portuguese descent. Venezuela is home to one of the largest Portuguese emigrant communities in the world, many with roots in Madeira, which makes the connection far more than a commercial route.

TAP had only recently returned to Venezuelan skies. The airline resumed Caracas flights earlier this year after an earlier suspension, marking 50 years of service to the country — a milestone now overshadowed by the disaster.

Restart, then rebuild

Service will restart modestly. Portugal's Secretary of State for the Portuguese Communities said TAP would begin with one weekly flight, “and the goal is to reach two weekly flights” as conditions allow. The reopening is meant to meet urgent demand from travellers needing to enter or leave Venezuela, including Portuguese nationals caught up in the aftermath of the quakes.

The first flights will carry more than symbolism. Around 7.5 tonnes of pharmaceutical products from Portuguese companies are due to travel on the resumed service, aid bound for a country whose health system is straining under the weight of the disaster.

Venezuela has tested the airline's nerve before. TAP had halted Caracas flights late last year after a security alert issued by the United States, only resuming them this spring — so Monday's restart marks the second time in less than a year that the carrier has had to weigh the risks of flying into a country buffeted by instability, and now natural disaster. The choice of Valencia over Caracas underscores how provisional the arrangement remains.

For the Portuguese-Venezuelan community — and for the relatives watching anxiously from Lisbon, Porto and Funchal — the return of even a single weekly flight restores a lifeline. Passengers holding tickets should check directly with TAP, as the rerouting to Valencia and the reduced frequency mean schedules and connections may differ from the usual Caracas service.