The United States's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) upgraded Venezuela's air security ranking to category one on Friday, avoiding a ban that would have blocked most U.S. airlines from flying to the country, the U.S. embassy in Venezuela said.

The decision came after a team of FAA inspectors visited Venezuela last month to examine the country's air security arrangements, after Venezuela's National Civil Aeronautics Agency (INAC) threatened to reduce the number of flights of three U.S. airlines to Venezuela.

The FAA had recognized the efforts by the INAC to "improve the level of aviation safety oversight in Venezuela," the U.S. embassy in Caracas said in a statement.

The FAA lowered Venezuela's air safety ranking to category two in 1995, which meant that Venezuelan airlines could not fly their own planes to the U.S. nor could they launch new services such as expanding flight routes.

Source: Xinhua