Travelers stranded in Caribbean as FAA closes airspace for Maduro capture

The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday temporarily banned U.S. airlines from flying near Venezuela, Puerto Rico and other parts of the Caribbean “due to safety-of-flight risks associated with ongoing military activity.”

President Donald Trump announced on social media early Saturday morning that the U.S. had “carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela,” capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The U.S. government has accused Maduro and Flores of narco-terrorism.

The FAA notices, all scheduled through Sunday, include bans in Curaçao and Trinidad and Tobago. In a news conference Saturday, Trump said the U.S. was prepared to mount a second-wave attack in Venezuela but that he doubted it would be needed.

According to the flight-tracking site FlightAware, more than 700 flights traveling through U.S. airports had been canceled by noon Saturday. There were more than 300 cancellations at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in Puerto Rico, representing almost half the scheduled arrivals and departures, and more than 125 cancellations at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Major U.S. airlines started canceling flights and informing travelers early Saturday, with JetBlue reporting that it canceled more than 200 flights.

Affected customers at JetBlue, American, Delta, United and Southwest were given options to adjust their travel plans at no extra cost, or take a refund for their cancellation in accordance with Transportation Department rules.

If an airline rebooks you on a flight that no longer works for your schedule, or you no longer want to take, you are entitled to a full cash refund. You are also owed a refund if the airline significantly delays your flight — meaning a delay of more than three hours for a domestic trip or six hours for international — and you choose not to travel.

“We’ve got people stranded both ways, trying to go places and come home, because they closed a lot of the Caribbean,” said John Rose, chief risk officer for Internova Travel Group, a network of travel advisers.

Laura Sangster, founder of the travel company Caribbean Journey, said by email Saturday that she was trying to rebook clients, and some could not leave until Friday.

“I’m hoping airlines will reposition some planes as soon as they can,” she said.

Sangster said hotels “are very full this week,” complicating logistics for people who are stranded in the Caribbean. She noted that travel insurance policies typically do not cover acts of war.

Some travelers posted about a change in plans on social media.

“I love Aruba, but I been here 2 weeks and my kids gotta go back to school. On the positive side we get to go to the start of carnival tonight,” one woman wrote on Threads.

Because the military operation appears to have gone as planned, Rose does not recommend canceling upcoming Caribbean travel once flights return. He described January as “peak time” for travel to the region.

“There’s been no credible threats against Americans that we’ve seen. We’ve got a lot of people concerned in Curaçao because of the proximity to Venezuela … but there’s been nothing to say anything bad is going to happen, so it’s more caution.”

U.S. military operations had already complicated air traffic in the region. Last month, a JetBlue pilot flying out of Curaçao told an air traffic controller that a U.S. Air Force plane had passed directly through his flight path and was not identifying itself with a GPS transponder.

“We almost had a midair collision up here,” the JetBlue pilot said.

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• Isaac Arnsdorf, Hannah Sampson, Andrea Sachs and Gabe Hiatt contributed.