What Happened To Boliviana De Aviacion’s A330s?!?

While I imagine this won’t impact 99.99% of OMAAT readers, curiosity is getting the best of me…

Boliviana de Aviacion has grounded two A330s

In 2023, Bolivia’s national airline, Boliviana de Aviacion, acquired Airbus A330-200s. The airline ultimately picked up three of these jets, all of which are former Virgin Australia aircraft. The airline flew these planes out of its hub in Santa Cruz de la Sierra (VVI), to Miami (MIA) and Madrid (MAD).

This carrier has fascinated me for a long time, so several months back, I finally flew Boliviana de Aviacion’s A330, and it was a flight I was probably way too excited about.

Well, reader JB has pointed out something interesting, which I wasn’t aware of. Boliviana de Aviacion has somehow gone from having three A330s in service, to having just one in service:

• On January 25, 2025, the A330 with the registration code CP-3209 flew to Mexico City (MEX), and it hasn’t flown since
• On March 2, 2025, the A330 with the registration code CP-3208 flew to Mexico City (MEX), and it hasn’t flown since
• At this point, the A330 with the registration code CP-3214 is the only one that remains in service, and it operates the Madrid route

Since March 2, the Miami route has been operated exclusively by a Boeing 737-800. The catch is that the 3,202-mile flight is beyond the plane’s range, so it has been refueling in Panama City (PTY), adding quite a bit of time to the journey.

Furthermore, of course this is lousy for the passenger experience, as the 737 is much less comfortable than the A330. For that matter, the 737 is in a one-cabin configuration, so doesn’t even have business class.

What’s actually going on with these A330s?!

From searching online, I can’t find any answer as to why two-thirds of Boliviana de Aviacion’s A330 fleet has been flown to Mexico and grounded.

For what it’s worth, the airline is once again selling business class on the Miami route for flights as of March 24, which suggests that the flight will be operated by an A330 as of then. However, it seems likely to me that this could just be an optimistic placeholder, and not actually reflect the reality.

Of course planes sometimes undergo scheduled maintenance, so I’d wonder if that’s what’s going on here, but that also doesn’t make much sense. You wouldn’t send two planes into maintenance at the same time (when there are only three total). Furthermore, scheduled maintenance would be reflected in the schedule in advance, and that wasn’t done here, as the planes were abruptly removed from the schedule.

I don’t want to make any assumptions here, but did the airline somehow end leases on these planes, and/or have trouble paying for them, and was forced to stop operating them? There aren’t many other logical theories I can come up with, but that’s why I’m writing about this. OMAAT readers collectively know just about everything, and I can’t help but wonder.

I’m so used to seeing a Boliviana de Aviacion A330 parked at Miami Airport for most of the day every day (since the flight arrives in the morning and departs late at night), but I guess we’ll be seeing a 737 for the foreseeable future…

Bottom line

Boliviana de Aviacion now only has a single Airbus A330 in service, as two of these heavy jets have been sent to Mexico City in recent weeks, with no movement since then. This sure is unusual, since if this were maintenance, you wouldn’t expect to see two planes taken out of service at the same time.

In the meantime, the carrier has downgraded its Miami flight to a Boeing 737, and that means a fuel stop is needed in Panama City in both directions.

Anyone have any Boliviana de Aviacion A330 insights?