A COPA Airlines plane takes off at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela, Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, days after the government revoked operating rights for international airlines that suspended flights following a warning from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.(AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)2025-12-02T15:02:57Z CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) U.S.-operated flights returning deported migrants to Venezuela will continue despite President Donald Trumps suggestion that the airspace of the South American country should be viewed as closed.The government of Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro on Tuesday announced that the twice weekly flights will go on following a request from the Trump administration. That reverses a Venezuelan government Saturday announcement indicating that U.S. immigration authorities had unilaterally suspended the flights.An overflight and landing application submitted Monday by U.S.-based Eastern Airlines requests permission for an arrival Wednesday. The application was made public Tuesday by Venezuelas foreign affairs minister.Venezuelans have been steadily deported to their home country this year after Maduro, under pressure from the White House, did away with his long-standing policy of not accepting deportees from the U.S. Immigrants now arrive regularly at the airport outside the capital, Caracas, on flights operated by a U.S. government contractor or Venezuelas state-owned airline. The flights have continued despite U.S. military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean and off Venezuelas Caribbean coast. The Trump administration says the strikes are aimed at drug cartels, some of which it claims are controlled by Maduro. Trump also is weighing whether to carry out strikes on the Venezuelan mainland.More than 13,000 migrants have been deported to Venezuela this year on dozens of chartered flights, the latest of which arrived Friday.