Departure
94%
vs 95% ▼ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Simón Bolívar International Airport at Maiquetía is Venezuela's principal gateway, sitting on the Caribbean coast a short distance from Caracas and handling the bulk of the country's international traffic. For the visiting simulator pilot it offers two substantial paved runways and a rich, at times turbulent, operational history spanning eight decades.
Simón Bolívar International Airport serves Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, from its coastal site at Maiquetía. Opened in 1945, it has long been the country's main international air passenger gateway and remains a large, busy field with two long paved runways, though it lacks an ILS. For a visiting pilot it is notable both for its scale and for the turbulent recent history that has seen many international carriers withdraw from the country.
The airport lies at Maiquetía in what was Vargas State (now Estado La Guaira), on the Caribbean coast roughly 21 kilometres north of Caracas city centre, which the airport serves as its principal gateway.
The airfield has two physical runways. Runway 10/28 is 11,466 feet long with a hard surface and lit for night operations. Runway 09/27 is 9,417 feet long, also hard-surfaced and lit. Field elevation is 174 feet. There is no ILS.
Air traffic services are provided under the callsign Maiquetia. Approach and Departure both operate on 120.1 MHz, Tower on 118.4 MHz, Ground on 121.9 MHz, and Radio on 130.1 MHz. A clearance delivery frequency is available on 119.5 MHz, and the ATIS broadcasts on 132.95 MHz.
The airport opened in 1945 as the Maiquetía International Airport, its site having been recommended by Charles Lindbergh on behalf of Pan Am, with construction subsidised by the United States under the Airport Development Program. The original terminal was designed by architect Luis Malaussena. During the 1950s, under the regime of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, the Caracas-La Guaira highway improved surface links to the capital, and between 1952 and 1962 the terminal was expanded and the runway lengthened to 2,000 metres with lighting added for night flying. A new runway was built in 1956 and extended in 1962 to 3,000 metres by 60 metres. From the late 1970s into the 1980s Air France operated a weekly Concorde service between Caracas and Paris, routing via Santa Maria in the Azores. A new international terminal was built in the 1970s and a domestic terminal opened in 1983. The national carrier Viasa ceased operations in January 1997. From 2000 the airport underwent modernisation under Proyecto Maiquetía 2000, completed in 2007, adding customs and immigration facilities, a new cargo terminal and a connecting passageway between terminals. Iran Air introduced a service to Tehran via Damascus in March 2007, later taken over by Conviasa, which ended non-stop Damascus service in August 2012.
Since around 2012 the airport has operated under the strain of Venezuela's economic crisis, with hyperinflation, parts shortages and fuel and maintenance concerns prompting many international airlines, including Aeroméxico, Aerolíneas Argentinas, Air Canada, Alitalia, Avianca, Delta Air Lines, Lufthansa, LATAM and United, to withdraw service. Turkish Airlines began flights linking Caracas to Istanbul via Havana from December 2016. By 2018 terminal facilities were reported to be lacking basic utilities. In late 2018 and again in 2019, Russian Air Force aircraft, including Tupolev Tu-160 bombers and transport flights carrying troops and matériel, were deployed to the airport in support of the Maduro government. Scheduled service to Miami by American Airlines resumed briefly in 2026 following a change in the country's political leadership, but the airport was subsequently forced to close indefinitely after severe earthquake damage to infrastructure in June 2026.