Mexico’s Volaris airline operates under El Salvador’s flag and will accept bitcoins

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Volaris, a leading Mexican airline, on Tuesday (19) became the second airline to operate under the flag of El Salvador and “the first in the world” that will accept bitcoins on Tuesday in the Central American country.

The low-cost airline’s operations under the Salvadoran flag were officially inaugurated today by President Nayib Bukele and Volaris CEO Enrique Beltranena at the Óscar Arnulfo Romero International Airport.

Read also: Check out our coverage on Mexico and El Salvador

“This will bring many benefits to the country, economic development, and legal security. Also, this is going to connect us more, it will be possible to travel more because it will be cheaper,” said the president during the event in which he highlighted that it would be “the first airline in the world to accept bitcoin”.

On August 7, El Salvador became the first country in the world where bitcoin is legal tender, alongside the U.S. dollar.

Volaris announced last August that its subsidiary Volaris El Salvador obtained certification by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to operate under the Salvadoran flag, the second to do so after TACA, which now flies under the Colombian Avianca brand.

“After many years, our country once again has its airline, not only because its planes fly under the Salvadoran flag, but also because its base is here, its pilots and flight attendants are Salvadoran,” said Bukele.

For his part, Beltranena said that through this initiative, “Salvadorans who are abroad will have the opportunity to reunite with their families in this country.”

“We are very proud to present to you Volaris El Salvador, the new sister airline of Salvadorans, with which we democratize air transportation in the country and help reunite the Salvadoran people with their communities abroad, with a fundamental factor that will be at very low cost,” he said.

Volaris is an airline that operates in Mexico, the United States, Central America and in 2017 extended its services to El Salvador.