Three and a half months after Operation Absolute Resolve captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, Caribbean air travel is finally returning to normal — Puerto Rico, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba, and Saint Maarten have all resumed commercial flights. But the recovery is uneven: flights to Puerto Rico are $208, while cruise ships won’t return to Barbados until 2027.
Is Travel in the Caribbean Getting Back to Normal?
As hard to believe as it may seem (maybe it’s at least partially due to getting lost in the shuffle with so much media coverage focused on the Strait of Hormuz), it’s already been three-and-a-half months since Operation Absolute Resolve (OAR), the daring U.S. military operation that captured the vile (now former) Venezuelan communist dictator, Nicolás Maduro. Since then, things in the Caribbean and the Gulf of America have been slowly but surely getting back to normal (with the notable exception of Cuba, of course), particularly in the economically vital arena of international commercial air travel.
Cruise Line Photo by 19FortyFive Back in May 2025. Image Taken by Harry J. Kazianis in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF)
Our key source of inspiration for this story is an anonymously authored article published back on January 4, 2026, on the Travel and Tour World (TTW) website with the very voluminous but self-explanatory title of “Puerto Rico Joins Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba, Saint Maarten, and Other Destinations in Resuming Flight Operations Across Caribbean After Widespread Airspace Disruptions Due to the US-Venezuela Conflict.” (Got all that?)
In the immediate wake of OAR, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a Notice to Airman (NOTAM) and imposed a restriction on the regional airspace due to the “security situation related to military activity.” Those restrictions were lifted at midnight on January 4, 2026; however, as noted by the opening paragraph of the article, “While the airspace reopening provides relief, the recovery process is expected to take several more days, with ongoing delays as airlines work to accommodate the backlog of passengers and adjust flight schedules.”
Digging Deeper Part #1: Puerto Rico
This one may be of particular interest to American citizens (even the non-touristy types), since Puerto Rico is, after all, a U.S. commonwealth whose natives have full American citizenship. (As a quick personal side note, the maid of honor for one of my dearest friends who tied the knot back in January was almost forced to miss the wedding due to being stuck in Puerto Rico on account of the flight disruptions!)
Of all the geographical entities (U.S. commonwealths and territories and foreign sovereign nations alike) in the Caribbean, Puerto Rico was the hardest hit by the airspace closure, with over 300 flight cancellations in a single day.
Carnival Cruise Ship at Port in 2025. 19FortyFive.com Photo
These cancellations applied not just to the main airport of Luis Muñoz Marín International (IATA: SJU, ICAO: TJSJ) but to satellite airports like Rafael Hernández International Airport in (BQN) and Ponce Mercedita (PSE).
Fast-forward to the present day, and if a perusal of the American Airlines (AA) website is any indication, air travel normalcy in “The Shining Star” (a Puerto Rican tourism TV advert slogan back in the day) appears to be back in full swing; when checking the AA search engine for flights from Washington, DC airports—Dulles International (IAD), Reagan National (DCA), and Baltimore/Washington International (BWI) alike—into SJU for the date of April 18, 2026, 41 different flight options come up, with Cattle Class, er, Economy Class fares starting as low as $208 USD (which is better fare than a lot of domestic flights within the continental United States [CONUS]).
Deeper Dive #2: Trinidad and Tobago
This island nation is one with which I have a personal nexus, as my parents (God rest their souls) and maternal half-sister and I lived there—specifically in the capital city of Port of Spain—when I was a wee bitty toddler in the late 1970s due to my Dad’s consulting work for the Organization of American States (OAS). (Indeed, on a clear day, we could see the Venezuelan coastline from our bedroom window.)
Once again, using flights from our nation’s capital on April 18 as a baseline criterion, and using Port of Spain’s Piarco International Airport (POS; obviously not to be confused with the derogatory “POS” acronym), the AA website shows 40 options, whilst JetBlue shows 3.
Deeper Dive #3: Barbados, a Double-Whammy
Barbados is another country my parents, half-sis, and I lived in during my Dad’s late 1970s OAS stint. And by double-whammy, I mean that the airspace closures negatively impacted that island nation’s airline industry and its cruise ship industry as well.
Carnival Cruise Ship at Port in 2025. 19FortyFive.com Photo
Prime Minister Mia Mottley called the closures “extremely disruptive.”
Currently, Delta Airlines lists 6 flights from DC to Grantley Adams International Airport (BGI), whilst JetBlue lists 3. As far as cruise ship travel to the capital city of Bridgetown, using Miami, Florida as a starting point, Royal Caribbean Group doesn’t show any available cruises until December 2027, whilst Carnival Cruise Line doesn’t have anything available until January 2027.
OAS Sidenote
Speaking of OAS, as I type these words, their official website is strangely mum thus far about this partial restoration of commercial air and sea cruise travel in the region (though they did publish some press releases about the Venezuela situation in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. military operation).
Carnival Cruise Ship at Sea in 2025. Image Credit: Harry J. Kazianis and 19FortyFive.com
For the benefit of any of our readers who might not be familiar with the OAS, it is “the world’s oldest regional organization, dating back to the First International Conference of American States, held in Washington, D.C., from October 1889 to April 1890…The OAS came into being in 1948 with the signing in Bogotá, Colombia, of the Charter of the OAS, which entered into force in December 1951.”
About the Author: Christian D. Orr
Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (with a concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He is also the author of the book “Five Decades of a Fabulous Firearm: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Beretta 92 Pistol Series,” the second edition of which was recently published.
