Trinidad and To­ba­go’s air­space re­mains open, ac­cord­ing to the Min­istry of De­fence, de­spite sev­er­al in­ter­na­tion­al air­lines can­celling flights fol­low­ing re­stric­tions im­posed by Unit­ed States au­thor­i­ties.

The min­istry ad­vised that flights leav­ing the Unit­ed States with­in the last 12 hours re­ceived in­struc­tions from the US Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Ad­min­is­tra­tion to re­turn to the US. This in­clud­ed a Jet­Blue flight bound for Trinidad which was in­struct­ed to turn back min­utes af­ter take-off from John F Kennedy In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port.

The Air­ports Au­thor­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go said the can­cel­la­tions fol­lowed the US Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Ad­min­is­tra­tion’s ban on US com­mer­cial flights op­er­at­ing in Venezue­lan air­space.