MAIQUETÍA, Venezuela — A powerful earthquake has damaged a passenger-terminal area at Simón Bolívar International Airport (CCS), Venezuela’s main international gateway, where a section of the roof or ceiling reportedly collapsed on Wednesday.
Videos reviewed by Airways appear to show extensive damage inside a public terminal area at the airport. Footage shows fallen ceiling panels, debris across the floor, dust filling the hall, damaged fixtures, and people evacuating the area.
Venezuela’s Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said that part of the airport’s roof had collapsed following the earthquake, according to local reporting. The full extent of the structural damage has not yet been publicly detailed.
Terminal damage seen in footage
The videos appear to show damage in a landside passenger area, including seating, commercial space, wayfinding signs, and overhead fixtures.
Large sections of suspended ceiling material appear to have fallen, while other panels and electrical elements remain hanging from the roof structure. Debris covers parts of the floor, and passengers and airport workers can be seen moving away from the affected area.
The footage establishes serious terminal-side damage, but it does not confirm the condition of the entire airport complex.
Operational status still unclear
As of publication, neither the Instituto Aeropuerto Internacional de Maiquetía nor Venezuela’s civil aviation authority had issued a detailed public assessment of the airport’s condition.
Airways has not independently confirmed damage to CCS runways, taxiways, the air traffic control tower, navigation systems, fuel infrastructure, cargo facilities, or aircraft parking areas. It is also unclear whether commercial operations have been suspended, restricted, or allowed to continue following post-earthquake inspections.
A damaged terminal does not automatically mean that an airport’s runway system is unusable. But passenger processing, security screening, baggage handling, gate access, evacuation routes, power supply, and fire-safety systems must all be assessed before normal operations can safely resume.
Travelers scheduled to fly through CCS should check directly with their airline before traveling to the airport.
Powerful earthquake strikes Venezuela
The U.S. Geological Survey reported a magnitude 7.1 earthquake in north-central Venezuela, west of the capital region, at a shallow depth of about 13 kilometers.
The tremor was felt strongly in Caracas and across several Venezuelan states, triggering evacuations, power and communications disruptions, and reports of significant building damage.
Authorities have warned residents to remain alert for aftershocks as emergency teams assess damaged structures.
June 25 Update: Airport closed as airlines cancel and divert flights
The closure of Simón Bolívar International Airport (CCS) following Wednesday’s earthquakes has disrupted more than 110 scheduled passenger flights on Thursday, severing Venezuela’s main domestic and international aviation gateway at the start of a full day of operations.
Cirium schedule data shared with Airways shows that 56 flights were scheduled to arrive at CCS on June 25, offering 8,505 inbound seats. With corresponding outbound operations also affected by the airport’s closure, more than 110 scheduled flight movements were expected to be disrupted.
That figure represents the airport’s planned schedule rather than an official airport-wide cancellation total. Authorities have not yet published a consolidated count of canceled, diverted, delayed, or repositioned flights.
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez confirmed that the airport remained closed because of earthquake damage, while structural and operational assessments continued. No reopening time had been announced at publication.
A hub goes dark
The disruption affects much more than a handful of international services.
Copa Airlines (CM) had three scheduled arrivals from Panama City (PTY), carrying 458 seats. LASER Airlines (QL) had three scheduled flights from Porlamar (PMV), while Avianca (AV) had two arrivals planned from Bogotá (BOG), carrying 360 seats. American Airlines (AA), which only resumed Miami (MIA)–Caracas service in April, had two scheduled arrivals from Miami with 152 seats.
The disrupted network also included flights from Madrid (MAD), Istanbul (IST), São Paulo (GRU), Curaçao (CUR), Havana (HAV), Managua (MGA), Medellín (MDE), Punta Cana (PUJ), and numerous domestic Venezuelan destinations.
For June as a whole, Cirium data lists 1,496 scheduled incoming flights to Caracas, representing 218,993 seats. Panama City, Porlamar, Bogotá, Curaçao, Madrid, Maracaibo, Barcelona, and Istanbul are among the airport’s largest scheduled markets.
Airlines cancel, divert
As the closure took effect, Copa canceled its Wednesday evening CM330 flight from Panama City and three scheduled Thursday Panama City–Caracas services. Wingo (P5) also canceled its P57006 flight from Bogotá, while a Turkish Airlines (TK) service from Istanbul bound for Caracas diverted to Panama City.
Avianca confirmed that it canceled AV122 on June 24, followed by AV123, AV142, and AV143 on June 25 across its Bogotá–Caracas–Bogotá operation.
The Colombian carrier activated a flexibility policy for passengers booked to or from Caracas between June 24 and July 1. Customers can rebook without penalty, subject to availability, for travel up to 15 days after their original date; reroute via Cúcuta (CUC); or request a refund for unused segments.
Copa has also issued a flexibility advisory for passengers traveling to, from, or through Caracas, as airlines continue to assess the operational consequences of the closure.
Damage assessment continues
Videos from inside the terminal show ceiling and roof failures, fallen panels, debris, dust, and damage in public passenger areas. Reports have also pointed to damage in airport parking and access infrastructure.
However, authorities have not yet released a full technical assessment covering the runways, taxiways, air traffic control systems, navigation equipment, fuel facilities, baggage systems, or emergency-access infrastructure.
The orchestration of these systems matter. An airport can have an available runway but still be unable to safely handle commercial flights if passenger-processing areas, utilities, security controls, evacuation routes, or emergency-response systems are compromised.
Until those systems are inspected and cleared, normal commercial operations cannot safely resume.
A fragile reconnection put at risk
The closure comes just as CCS had begun to regain its role as Venezuela’s main international gateway after years of isolation, security concerns, and suspended service.
American restored Miami–Caracas flights on April 30, marking the first nonstop commercial U.S.–Venezuela passenger service in seven years. The airline added a second daily Miami frequency on May 21, further reinforcing the route’s importance for diaspora, family, and business travel.
United Airlines (UA) is also scheduled to resume daily Houston (IAH)–Caracas flights on August 11, subject to final approval, reopening another major U.S. link after nearly a decade.
Avianca had resumed Bogotá–Caracas service in February and expanded to two daily frequencies in late March. Meanwhile, CCS’s June schedule included international links operated by Air Europa (UX), Iberia (IB), Plus Ultra (PU), Turkish Airlines, GOL (G3), LATAM Airlines (LA), Copa, Wingo, and several other regional carriers.
That makes a prolonged closure more consequential than a normal airport disruption. CCS is not only Caracas’ gateway to Latin America, North America, and Europe; it had become the focal point of a still-fragile aviation reopening, supporting diaspora travel, business links, humanitarian movement, and renewed international connectivity.
The immediate priority is a full structural and operational assessment. But every additional day of closure means there will be network recovery pause while the airport at its center is unable to receive passengers.
A complex assessment ahead
Speaking in a Venezuelan radio interview, former Airways publisher and aviation expert Enrique Perella said the path to reopening Caracas Simón Bolívar International Airport (CCS) could be considerably more complex than restoring a single damaged runway.
Perella said both runways have reportedly suffered fractures and will require a full technical assessment before repair and resurfacing can begin. He warned that landing aircraft on compromised pavement could create additional structural stress, making a detailed review essential before normal operations resume.
While Venezuela’s civil aviation authority, INAC, and airport officials have indicated that operations could potentially restart on July 2, Perella emphasized that any reopening must follow a comprehensive inspection of the entire airport. That review, he said, should extend beyond the runways to include taxiways, security infrastructure, baggage systems, and potentially the airport’s fuel facilities.
“The assessment is not limited to the runway,” Perella said in the interview. “It must include the airport’s overall condition and the repairs that may be necessary.”
He also underscored the human toll of the disaster. Much of the airport workforce lives in La Guaira, including pilots, maintenance personnel, fuel staff, security workers, and check-in agents. Perella said reports of fatalities among people connected to airport operations add another difficult dimension to any eventual reopening.
“When the airport reopens, many of the people we were used to seeing there may no longer be there,” he said. “We have to be conscious of that reality.”
Featured image: Helwing Villamizar/Airways
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