Venezuela welcomes 1st Colombian flight after restoration of ties

Caracas, Nov 10 Venezuela welcomed on Wednesday the first Colombian flight from Satena Airline, after the reestablishment of diplomatic and commercial relations between the two nations in August.

Venezuelan Transport Minister Ramon Velasquez met the flight at the Simon Bolivar International Airport, where he noted that a flight from the Venezuelan airline Turpial landed in Colombia on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Accompanied by his Colombian counterpart Guillermo Reyes, the Minister highlighted that this was a victory for presidents Nicolas Maduro and Gustavo Petro of Venezuela and Colombia, respectively.

He stressed the importance of resuming flights "since we are formalising air connectivity between two great fraternal peoples" that allows travel between Caracas and Bogota in less than two hours.

For his part, Reyes celebrated the flight landing and commented that Satena "for the first time in history conducted an international flight" and did so to "re-establish the brotherhood between Colombia and Venezuela".

The two countries restored diplomatic relations after Petro assumed the presidency, which led to the reopening of border crossings and the strengthening of commercial ties.