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Following the large-scale military intervention by the US armed forces in Venezuela, the US government issued a ban on airlines airlines whose aircraft are registered in the country to refrain from flying in Caribbean airspace. The ban will last 24 hours. This measure has obviously had an impact on traffic. For scheduled airlines such as Tradewind and Cape Air, which serve Saint-Barthélemy, but also for jets. According to information gathered by JSB from the airport authorities, over a hundred aircraft have been grounded since this morning: 65 on the tarmac of Sint Maarten's Princess Juliana International Airport and 44 on the Anguilla runway.
Like their colleagues on scheduled airlines (American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Jet Blue and Spirit), the pilots of these aircraft have to wait for Washington to lift the ban before they can take to the skies again. In Saint-Barthélemy, tourists celebrating the arrival of the year 2026 on board these jets are having to wait patiently for the ban to be lifted. Some, however, travelled to Sint Maarten by boat, hoping to be able to fly to the United States as early as this Saturday. However, in the face of the ban, they returned to Saint-Barthélemy until permission to take off was officially announced. This could happen as early as midnight tonight.
It should be noted that, due to the closure of airspace to US airlines because of ongoing military activities, JetBlue has had to cancel around 215 flights. Similarly , Delta Airlines has temporarily cancelled flights to thirteen Caribbean airports.
