Bolivian Air Market Begins Recovery

Five carriers that operate to and from Bolivia, including the state-owned Boliviana de Aviación (BoA), and Avianca, Copa Airlines, Air Europa and Paranair, notified a slight post-pandemic recovery in the Bolivian commercial aviation market.

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BoA expects the complete recovery of the aeronautical market in Bolivia in a period of two to three years.

In this 2021, the Bolivian flag carrier has recovered 89% of its passenger traffic. This recovery has been determined mainly by domestic routes.

According to Ronald Casso, BoA’s CEO, there were months in 2021 in which the Bolivian air domestic market registered better numbers than 2019, demonstrating an important market recovery.

International operations to and from Bolivia does not experience the same recovery, remaining at scales lower than 50% of the historical behavior, because there are still restrictions, mainly in markets in the region such as Argentina. Although the state airline BoA increased its international flights since Nov. 22, on different international routes.

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Flights to Miami will increase from 7 to 10; to São Paulo, from 7 to 11; to Buenos Aires, from 5 to 9; and routes to Lima, Cancún and Cuba will be scheduled later.

Avianca’s operation to and from Bolivia are expected to grow steadily through 2022. The Colombian carrier has operated around 190 flights this year, and last October, the load factor was 83%.

The main destinations to which Bolivians are traveling with Avianca is Bogotá, and then other cities in the interior of Colombia, such as Cali, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Medellín and San Andrés Island.

Copa Airlines offers 11 weekly frequencies to and from the Viru Viru International Airport in Santa Cruz.

The main problem for Bolivians to travel to Europe is the type of vaccines with which the Bolivian government immunizes its population, since these are not accepted by the European community.

Currently, Air Europa operates three weekly flights, and the European carrier is on the road to its 100% recovery that may be completed by mid-2022, if no new restrictions are imposed in Europe and Bolivia.