Caracas Airport To Reopen To Commercial Flights Using Parallel Runway After Devastating Quakes

Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, announced on Tuesday that Simón Bolívar International Airport in La Guaira will be reopened to commercial traffic "as soon as possible" by using the airport's parallel runway. The facility was damaged in the June 24 twin earthquakes that struck near La Guaira and Caracas.

The twin tremors, measured at magnitudes 7.3 and 7.5, flattened numerous residential buildings and have been described as among the worst earthquakes in Latin America. The government updated the official toll to 3,685 dead and reported nearly 17,000 injured; thousands remain homeless and many families continue to search rubble for loved ones.

Humanitarian and military assistance: Authorities have allowed limited humanitarian flights to use the airport while U.S. airmen and military experts assist with repairs and with reopening the nearby port in La Guaira to speed delivery of supplies and equipment. On a conference call with reporters, U.S. embassy Charge d'Affaires John Barrett said U.S. officials are in talks with American commercial carriers about resuming scheduled flights but cautioned that "there is some work to do in terms of the infrastructure to support commercial operations at the airport."

U.S. Southern Command chief Gen. Francis Donovan said U.S. military personnel continue to support air-traffic control and ground cargo operations. U.S. officials reported that roughly 2,000 U.S. service members have been deployed to assist disaster-relief efforts, and U.S. helicopters and transport aircraft have routinely used the airfield.

Nearly two weeks after the quakes, international search-and-rescue missions have wound down while families and local crews keep combing destroyed buildings for victims. Outside the collapsed Rita Sol Palace building in the Caraballeda area of La Guaira, excavators and relatives sift through debris. Lazaro Rubio, 66, said his wife and her two daughters remain trapped while his 11-year-old stepson survived and is now in Caracas: "We're not leaving here until we recover the bodies... It's my duty," he said.

The United Nations estimates the earthquakes caused about $6.7 billion in damage—roughly six percent of Venezuela's GDP—and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has appealed for roughly $14.85 million to provide protection, relief items and temporary shelter for 30,000 affected people over six months. Two days after the disaster, the U.N. estimated up to 50,000 people could be unaccounted for; the Venezuelan government has not published its own comprehensive estimate of the missing.

Political and humanitarian context: Venezuela was already coping with a prolonged economic crisis and political instability that have strained infrastructure and health services. Rodríguez has defended the government's response, but many relatives of the missing and displaced have criticized the timing and scale of official actions, saying they were forced to begin searching on their own before international teams arrived.

Official statement
"I ordered the immediate activation of an alternative plan to allow commercial flights to resume as soon as possible using the airport's parallel runway," Rodríguez wrote on her Telegram account.

Officials have not announced a firm date for the resumption of scheduled commercial services. U.S. and Venezuelan authorities say reopening will depend on completing infrastructure repairs and restoring airport support services.

Reporting credits: pma/cb/msp