Ecojet

Is Ecojet safe?

Ecojet has never had a fatal accident or lost an aircraft, but it flies some of the oldest jets in regular passenger service anywhere, and it has had a run of engine and maintenance problems. Bolivia's second domestic airline offered 9% of the country's domestic seats in 2025, against 91% for the state airline BoA. The third, the Air Force-run TAMep, flies a single Avro RJ70, the smallest version of Ecojet's type. We score Ecojet 64, below BoA (69) and below Andes Líneas Aéreas (75), another small South American airline without an IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit.

A clean accident record, on a small scale

Ecojet began scheduled flights in 2013. The Aviation Safety Network database holds no Ecojet accident. No one has died on an Ecojet flight, and no aircraft has been written offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary.

That record covers about 13 years and a fleet that rarely tops four jets in service. In 2026 Ecojet flew about 74 flights a week, according to Cirium data compiled by Aviacionline, with its busiest route between Santa Cruz and La Paz. A small, short record can be clean by luck as well as by good practice, so it does not earn the top band of our accident score.

How old are Ecojet's planes?

Very old. Ecojet flies the Avro RJ85 and RJ100, the last versions of the British Aerospace 146 "Jumbolino", a four-engine regional jet whose production ended in 2003. In March 2026 Cirium counted four active Ecojet aircraft (three RJ85s and an RJ100) with an average age of 28 years, and three more stored. Only 21 aircraft of the whole 146 family were still flying passengers worldwide, most of them in South America and Iran.

The type suits Bolivia. Four engines and a high wing give it good take-off performance at high airports, though each aircraft needs a high-altitude kit before it may fly into La Paz. The problem is support. With so few still flying, parts and engine overhauls are harder to arrange, and Ecojet's history shows the strain. In October 2021 its only working aircraft stopped for three weeks. A replacement jet due in January 2022 arrived in May with technical problems. By June 2022 all three aircraft were grounded for maintenance, flights stopped from 19 to 28 June, and the DGAC said it would withdraw Ecojet's operating certificate if it was not flying again by the end of August. It did fly again, and in 2026 it is growing: Sucre and Tarija returned in September, and the airline says it has bought another RJ85 for flights to Potosí in 2027.

Engine failures and other incidents

The incidents in the last 10 years point at the aircraft more than the crews:

• Near DOLGI, January 2020. On 14 January two Ecojet flights, ECO983 and ECO830, flew close enough en route for a TCAS resolution advisory, the collision-avoidance system's order to climb or descend. One was flying from La Paz to Santa Cruz-Viru Viru. Bolivia's accident investigation unit (DGAC-AIG) classed it as a serious incident (INCID G-04-20). The DGAC lists it in its 2020 register of accidents and serious incidents, but no cause has been published, so we do not say who was at fault.
• Cochabamba, June 2021. On 21 June the RJ85 CP-2889, on a ferry flight with only its crew on board, stopped its take-off at Cochabamba when engine No. 1 failed. The engine was severely damaged; the crew were unhurt. The DGAC-AIG classed it as a serious incident (INCID G-02-21) and lists it in its 2021 register, with no report or cause published.
• Santa Cruz, July 2021. On 30 July the same aircraft, CP-2889, stopped its take-off at Santa Cruz-Viru Viru when engine No. 3 failed (serious incident, INCID G-04-21).
• Santa Cruz, August 2021. On 27 August CP-2889 had its third engine failure in ten weeks (serious incident, INCID G-05-21). At the start of the take-off roll on flight 303 to Trinidad, the temperature reading on engine No. 4 dropped out, a FADEC fault light came on and the aircraft pulled to the right. The crew stopped on the runway and shut the engine down. It had reached 809°C for 17 seconds, and the engine was damaged, with loose debris found. The DGAC announced a detailed audit of the airline.
• El Alto, February 2023. The main-gear tyres of the same RJ85, CP-2889, burst as it landed at La Paz. Nobody was hurt, but the airport closed for almost four hours. The DGAC's accident prevention unit opened an investigation.
• Cochabamba, October 2026. Flight 1262 to Santa Cruz returned to Cochabamba with a technical problem; the DGAC said nobody was hurt and that it is investigating.

In all three engine failures the crew stopped safely, and a four-engine jet gives a margin when one engine fails. But three engine failures at take-off on one aircraft in ten weeks, a regulator audit and a threat to pull the certificate within a year are what our incidents score is designed to catch. The DGAC has published no report, cause or safety recommendation on any of the four serious incidents.

How we scored it

The accident record (85) is the strongest factor: no deaths and no aircraft lost since 2013. Oversight scores 70: Bolivia holds FAA Category 1FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary, but Ecojet has no IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit we could confirm, and the DGAC's reports are hard to find. The fleet scores 35 for 28-year-old jets of an out-of-production type with scarce parts. Serious incidents score 42: the DGAC lists the 2020 TCAS alert and three engine failures on take-off on one RJ85 in 2021 as serious incidents, and the 2022 grounding, the certificate warning and the 2023 tyre burst followed. The network of high and Amazon airports scores 48. Overall 64.

Flying Ecojet: practical tips

• Plan for disruption. With three or four jets, one aircraft out of service can cancel flights for a day or more. Do not book a tight onward connection, and contact Bolivia's transport regulator, the ATT, if you are owed a refund; it announced a fine on Ecojet over the 2022 cancellations.
• Expect a long take-off at La Paz. At 4,060 metres even a four-engine jet needs a long run.
• Check the weather in the Amazon. Flights to Riberalta, Guayaramerín and Rurrenabaque are delayed or cancelled in heavy rain; in January 2026 an Ecojet flight to Riberalta turned back to Trinidad when a downpour flooded the town.