RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Bolivian state airline Boliviana de Aviación (BoA) added the Peruvian city of Lima to its list of international destinations on Tuesday, reaching five cities, its general director Ronald Casso confirmed today, Wednesday.
“With the official opening of our first flight to Lima, the fifth international destination has been inaugurated, with prices that correspond to the reality of the domestic and international market,” the BoA manager told Xinhua news.
The inaugural flight to Lima took place on Tuesday evening, on a route that will be served on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, while return flights are scheduled for Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.
The Peruvian capital thus joins Buenos Aires (Argentina), Madrid (Spain), Miami (United States), and São Paulo (Brazil), cities served by the Bolivian airline.
Casso explained that the new route meets the need for integration between Bolivia and Peru and offers connecting flights to Buenos Aires and São Paulo.
BoA was founded in 2007 and began operations in 2009 between Bolivia’s three capitals of Cochabamba (center), La Paz (west), and Santa Cruz (east).
According to the state-owned airline, the new flights will provide the nine Bolivian departments and the cities of Buenos Aires and São Paulo with continuous connections to Lima and facilitate connections to Asia and Europe.
The interviewee pointed out that when Bolivian President Luis Arce took office in November 2020, he found that the airline was bankrupt and had embezzled more than $147 million.
He recalled that the airline began a restructuring process a year ago to ensure sustainability following losses due to the new coronavirus pandemic.
“We activated a business and economic recovery plan. We have given several financial injections to the Bolivian airline so that all Bolivians can enjoy safe and efficient air transportation,” Casso said.
In 2021, the state-owned airline carried 394,000 passengers, 115 percent more than in 2019, according to the Ministry of Public Works.
With information from Xinhua news