TAMep

Is TAMep safe?

TAMep has had no accident since it began flying as a civil airline in 2019, but it is a fragile operation: a single Avro RJ70 jet of a type no longer built, no spare aircraft, 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 and only a few years under full civil oversight. We score it 66, above Ecojet (64) and below BoA (69), Bolivia's two larger domestic airlines.

TAM, short for Transporte Aéreo Militar, is the Bolivian Air Force's airline. It still sells cheap seats between La Paz, Santa Cruz, Cochabamba and Cobija, and the flights do operate: on 28 October 2026 the airport boards at Santa Cruz and Cochabamba listed six TAMep flights.

From Air Force unit to state company

TAM began in 1945 as an Air Force service that carried passengers and cargo to towns no commercial airline served. For most of its history it flew Air Force aircraft with military crews under military rules, outside the civil aviation authority.

That ended in steps. On 8 December 2016, days after the crash of the Bolivian charter airline LaMia near Medellín drew attention to Bolivian aviation, the Ministry of Public Works ordered TAM's passenger flights stopped because it carried civilians without following ICAO safety oversight procedures. The defence minister disputed the order and some routes kept flying. A 2017 decree gave TAM until 31 July 2018 to become a certified commercial airline. It missed the deadline, and the public works minister said TAM was "not a regular civil operator". It stopped flying with Air Force aircraft.

The state company, the Empresa Pública de Transporte Aéreo Militar, restarted flights on 3 April 2019 with a newly bought Avro RJ70. After about two years without flights it returned on 31 May 2024 with that aircraft, registered CP-3106 on the civil register, after the DGAC granted it an air operator certificate. The company belongs to the Ministry of Defence and is still run by the Air Force.

TAM's accident record

TAM's early record was poor. Between 1950 and 1978 the Aviation Safety Network lists about a dozen fatal crashes of TAM aircraft, among them a Convair that killed all 67 people on board in 1975. None of that falls inside our 20-year window, and neither do two hull lossesHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary just before it: a Convair 580 that crash-landed after take-off at Trinidad in February 2005, injuring 28, and an F27 that ran off a wet runway at Guayaramerín in April 2006, after which an 80-year-old passenger died of a heart attack (ASN).

Between 2006 and 2013, as an Air Force unit, TAM had no fatal accident, but it did damage or lose aircraft:

• July 2008: a Fokker F27 flying from Guayaramerín to Trinidad lost its No. 1 engine and made a forced landing on a road. All 37 people survived; the aircraft was written off.
• January 2012: an MA60 landed with its gear up at Guayaramerín after its landing gear would not extend. The 21 people on board were not hurt. The same aircraft had landed wheels-up at Rurrenabaque in March 2011.
• December 2013: a bird struck an engine of an F27 after take-off from Guayaramerín, cracking the wing; it returned and landed safely.

We do not count these events in the score. For a military or state operator that becomes a civil company, the civil certificate decides, so TAMep's record starts with its first civil flights in April 2019. The events happened on an Air Force fleet, since retired, under military rules, and the airline has had no accident since. That record is short and built on one aircraft, so the accident factor scores 82, low in the band for airlines without a fatal accident in 15 years. We do not count the Air Force C-130 that overran the runwayRunway excursionWhen an aircraft leaves the runway surface during take-off or landing, either off the end (an overrun) or off the side (a veer-off).More in the glossary at El Alto on 27 February 2026 and killed 24 people, most of them on the road below: it was operated by TAB, a state cargo airline, not by TAM.

One aircraft, no spare

TAMep's whole fleet is one Avro RJ70, the smallest version of the four-engine British Aerospace 146 "Jumbolino". The family has been out of production since 2003. In March 2026 only 21 were still flying passengers anywhere in the world, with an average age of more than 29 years (Cirium data via Aviacionline). Ecojet flies the larger RJ85 and RJ100.

The type suits Bolivia's high airports, but a one-aircraft airline has no slack. In October 2025 the RJ70 went into maintenance and every TAMep flight stopped. It returned to service on 10 April 2026 after work by the Air Force's maintenance unit in Cochabamba, and scheduled flights resumed on 17 April. The timetable keeps Tuesdays free for maintenance.

Earlier warnings are worth knowing. In 2015 two TAM aircraft were disabled in one day, one with an engine fire before take-off. Documents obtained by the news agency ANF in 2017 showed that TAM's military chiefs had approved at least five flights on aircraft with known technical faults, including a BAe 146 flown with passengers after an engine change without the test flight its technicians asked for.

How we scored it

The accident record (82) is the strongest factor: no accident since civil flights began in 2019, on a short record with one aircraft. The Air Force unit's earlier hull lossHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary and gear-up landings are described but not counted. Oversight scores 68: 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 TAM only came fully under the DGAC after 2018 and 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. The fleet (32) is one old aircraft of an out-of-production type. Serious incidents score 62: we found none since 2019, but Bolivia publishes little; the 2016 suspension order and the missed 2018 certification deadline came before the civil certificate. High La Paz and wet Cobija give the environment 50. Overall 66.

Flying TAMep: practical tips

• Have a backup plan. With one aircraft, any technical problem cancels the day's flights, and a long repair can stop the airline for months. Avoid TAMep for a flight you cannot miss, such as one that connects to an international departure.
• Check the day. The schedule leaves Tuesdays free for maintenance, so the La Paz–Santa Cruz and La Paz–Cobija flights do not run that day.
• Know who regulates fares and refunds. Bolivia's transport regulator, the ATT, authorises TAMep's routes and sets a maximum fare; complain to the ATT if a cancelled flight is not refunded.