Aviation History
Bolivian aviation was defined for eight decades by Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano (LAB), founded in 1925 as one of the oldest airlines in the Americas, which collapsed financially and ceased operations in 2007. The government responded by creating state-owned Boliviana de Aviación (BoA) the same year; after private carrier AeroSur also went bankrupt in 2011, BoA became Bolivia's dominant carrier and later added transatlantic long-haul service.
A consortium of German-Bolivian residents establishes LAB in Cochabamba; it becomes South America's second-oldest airline after Avianca.
LAB begins expanding beyond domestic routes into international service across the Americas.
Decades of financial trouble and a failed privatization with Brazil's VASP culminate in LAB suspending flights; its license is revoked in 2010.
State-owned BoA, created by government decree in 2007, begins commercial flights connecting La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz.
Bolivia's largest private airline goes bankrupt, leaving BoA as the country's principal carrier.
BoA begins long-haul service to Madrid, its first transatlantic route.
BoA achieves full membership in the International Air Transport Association.
BoA takes delivery of its first Airbus A330-200 in April, expanding long-haul widebody capacity.
Boliviana de Aviación (BoA) · Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano (historical) · AeroSur (historical)
Wikipedia, Britannica, BoA corporate history, Simple Flying
Aviation Firsts
El Alto International Airport — La Paz (1965): Officially inaugurated 18 June 1965 per the infobox; the article also notes the site "had been in service since the first half of the 20th century" before being modernized/rebuilt in the late 1960s and reconstructed again in 1974 — an earlier, unspecified-date airfield apparently existed on/near the site, but no specific earlier year could be confirmed. Jorge Wilstermann International Airport (Cochabamba), the historic main base of Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano (founded 1925), is a plausible older candidate, but no source gives an opening/construction year for it at all, so it is reported only as an unconfirmed lead, not a formal claim. · Wikipedia ↗
Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano (LAB) (1925): The infobox gives 15 September 1925 while the article body elsewhere says "August 1925" — both dates reported since the source conflicts with itself; commercial flights began 24 September 1925 (infobox: 23 September, another internal inconsistency). Operations suspended by government order 1 April 2007, aircraft license formally revoked in 2010 — defunct. Wikipedia's own article calls LAB "the second oldest in South America after Avianca," not explicitly the single oldest Bolivian carrier, but no older Bolivia-based airline was found in research. · Wikipedia ↗
No documented foreign entrant found. SABSA (Servicios de Aeropuertos Bolivianos), majority-owned by Spain's Abertis until nationalization/concession end (2013-2022), was an airport-management concessionaire, not a ground-handling company — excluded per the rules. Since 2022 the state entity NAABOL (replacing AASANA) runs ground/ramp services directly. No Swissport, dnata, Menzies, or other foreign ground handler could be found operating in Bolivia.