CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez said on Tuesday the international airport damaged in the twin earthquakes would reopen as soon as possible using an alternative runway.

Simon Boliver International Airport is in La Guaira, north of Caracas and was the epicentre of the June 24 twin earthquakes that toppled scores of residential buildings and killed more than 3,500 people.

The airport has been partially open to humanitarian flights.

“I ordered the immediate activation of an alternative plan to allow commercial flights to resume as soon as possible using the airport’s parallel runway,” Rodriguez said in a message on her Telegram account.

One of Latin America’s worst earthquake disasters has left thousands of people homeless and thousands more still missing, especially in the badly damaged La Guaira area.

United States (US) airmen and military experts have been helping to reopen the airport and also repair the quake-hit port in La Guaira to help delivery of supplies and equipment.