Privately owned Amaszonas (Z8, La Paz El Alto) launched flights to Chimoré's Soberanía Airport, set amid Bolivia's Cochabamba tropical parks, on August 16, a route that was abandoned at the end of July by state-owned carrier BoA - Boliviana de Aviación (OB, La Paz El Alto).
“We are going to do all we can for prices to this destination to remain economical, so that people can come here to do tourism, sports, there are so many things that can be done here that we are really proud to start developing this destination touristically,” Sergio de Urioste, general manager of Amaszonas, told the daily newspaper Página Siete.
Amaszonas now operates a Dash 8-200 2x weekly to Chimoré from Santa Cruz Viru Viru, according to the ch-aviation capacities module, but de Urioste said that a greater presence was possible in the future.
“We specialise in tourist routes. We started flying to Rurrenabaque with only one weekly frequency almost 20 years ago, and now we have seven, up to eight flights a day [27x weekly, according to ch-aviation capacities]. Here we are starting with two weekly flights, but I am sure that little by little, with everyone's effort, we will increase to daily flights,” he said.
Visiting Chimoré to greet the first flight, President Evo Morales urged the local population to show "a lot of kindness, hospitality, to the tourists who come".
BoA announced the temporary suspension of its 3x weekly route to Chimoré on July 29, saying that the aircraft operating the route were undergoing maintenance. BoA said in early August that it was planning to accelerate the retirement of its B737-300 fleet due to a spate of recent incidents involving the type, including a major landing gear malfunction during a takeoff roll at Cochabamba on August 3.
Tour operators in La Paz interviewed by Página Siete said that the route was not attractive to tourists, who prefer to travel to the province of Chapare from Cochabamba or Santa Cruz by land.
Chimoré Airport opened in October 2015 with a 4,000-metre-long runway, 17/35, at a cost of BOB240,521,400 boliviano (USD36 million at the time). It was used as a US airbase to combat drug trafficking in the 1990s, according to the Bolivian news agency ABI.
