General José Antonio Anzoategui International Airport — Barcelona, Venezuela

BLA is the code for the airport serving Barcelona, a city in eastern Venezuela's Anzoategui state, officially named for Jose Antonio Anzoategui, a military officer who served under Simon Bolivar during Venezuela's independence campaigns. That naming tradition is common among Venezuelan airports honoring independence-era figures. The field sits a mere 30 feet above the Caribbean coastline. As a large airport, BLA operates two runways handling both domestic routes across Venezuela and a smaller number of international connections. The airport serves the broader Barcelona-Puerto La Cruz metropolitan area, an important center for Venezuela's oil industry along the coast. Its coastal, low-elevation location places it near popular beach destinations in Anzoategui state, and passenger volumes at BLA have fluctuated over the years alongside broader shifts in Venezuela's aviation sector and international connectivity. Ground crews there contend with the tropical humidity typical of Venezuela's northern coast year-round, a climate factor that also shapes maintenance schedules for aircraft based at the field.