Cheap Airline Tickets to Bolivia | Flights to La Paz & Santa Cruz

When booking a flight to Bolivia from the United States, Canada or Europe the international airlines fly into two airports. Viru Viru International Airport in Santa Cruz - VVI and El Alto International Airport – LPB, which is the closest airport to La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. In the 1960's renovations were done on El Alto and it is now officially known as John F Kennedy International Airport, but everyone still refers to it as El Alto.

Bolivia is a destination where you need to plan ahead to get the best prices on flights. There are not many last minute flight deals to Bolivia. The best days of the week to fly for discount flights are Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. There are not as many air travelers to Bolivia and therefore the competition is lower and the prices are higher than other South American countries. However, some of the travel search engines like Travelocity.com or LowFares.com will sometimes advertise cheap airline tickets to Bolivia.

Viru Viru is the busiest airport in the country. It is at a lower elevation than El Alto International Airport. Viru Viru International Airport handles over 800,000 passengers per year. The airport is able to handle airplanes as large as the Boeing 747. The airport is at an elevation of 373 meters and the runway is 3.5 kilometers long.

El Alto International Airport (John F. Kennedy Int'l Airport) in La Paz has the distinction of the world's highest airport at an elevation of 4,061 meters above sea level. The runway is 4 kilometers and can handle large aircraft.

If you are flying from the US or Canada, the airlines serving Bolivia are American Airlines, Aerosur, COPA Airlines, LAN Airlines and TACA through its partner TACA Peru.

American Airlines routes all of its flights from the US or Canada through Miami.

Aerosur is privately owned and is the national airline of Bolivia.

COPA Airlines main hub is in Panama City, Panama and all flights from the US go through Panama City before continuing on to South American destinations.

LAN Airlines also depart out of Miami. They do not have any direct flights to Bolivia, most are routed through Lima, Peru.

TACA and its partner TACA Peru fly to Bolivia with stops in Lima, Peru. In addition if you are traveling from the US or Toronto, Canada you will connect in its San Salvador, El Salvador hub.

For flights within the country most travelers fly Aerosur and LAB Airlines. Since 2009, LAB Airlines have had a commercial alliance with Aerosur. This was necessary due to financial difficulties LAB encountered in 2007. Road travel can be difficult within Bolivia and you may want to consider flying with the country to avoid some dangerous routes and long travel time.

Aerosur and LAB fly to these destinations: Cochabamba, Sucre, Santa Cruz, La Paz, Tarija, and Trinidad.

If you are wanting to fly to other South American destinations, LAB and Aerosur fly to Panama, Sao Paulo & Rio De Janiero Brazil, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Cordoba, Lima and Santiago.

The only direct flights to Bolivia from the US are out of Miami and American Airlines is the only airline with non-stop service to Bolivia. The flight is from Miami to La Paz. If you are bound for VVI you will land in LPB first. There are no direct flights from Canada to Bolivia. Miami, Florida is also the US city with the cheapest flights to Bolivia.

Almost all flights to Bolivia land in El Alto (LPB) first before continuing on to Santa Cruz. Yet in the strange world of airline pricing, flights to Santa Cruz are often cheaper than flights to La Paz. For example, using the travel search engine Travelocity, a direct flight for December 2010 was available out of Miami to La Paz for $746 ($802 after taxes and fees), yet the same flight continuing on to Santa Cruz was priced at $645 ($701 after taxes and fees). It doesn't really make sense that you save $100 by flying beyond La Paz and continuing to Santa Cruz but hey, that is just the way it is.