As a result of El Salvador’s mainstream Bitcoin (BTC) adoption, Volaris El Salvador, a local subsidiary of budget Mexican airline Volaris, will accept Bitcoin as payment.
The Bitcoin move comes a month after Salvadoran aviation authorities gave Volaris’s local subsidiary permission to operate in the country.
Salvadoran President Niyab Bukele took to Twitter to announce that the airline would accept Bitcoin.
Ya tenemos aerolínea salvadoreña, de bajo costo y que acepta #Bitcoin
@viajaVolaris pic.twitter.com/mMqzxtOYhA
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) October 20, 2021
In a recent Volaris event hosted on Twitter, President Bukele highlighted that the ability to pay with Bitcoin and the state-run Chivo wallet “allows us to increase the offering of flights for Salvadorans.”
Bukele’s government continues to incentivize citizens to use Bitcoin for payments and has even offered fuel subsidies. The country had previously reinvested $4 million worth of unrealized Bitcoin gains to fund infrastructure development projects such as a veterinary hospital.
Related: Venezuelan international airport to accept Bitcoin payments: Report
Following in El Salvador’s footsteps, authorities from a Venezuelan airport plan to start accepting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as payment for tickets and other services.
As Cointelegraph reported, Simón Bolívar International Airport, in association with the National Superintendence of Crypto Assets and Related Activities, wants to enable crypto payments as a means to comply with local industry standards.
According to the airport director Freddy Borges, the airport will accept payment in Bitcoin, Dash (DASH) and the Petro, a government-issued oil-backed token. Signaling a commitment to drive cryptocurrency adoption, Borges said “we must advance in these new economic and technological systems to be accessible.”