Volaris El Salvador, a subsidiary of Mexican budget airline Volaris, is set to start accepting Bitcoin (BTC/USD) as payment for air tickets. El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, disclosed this news through a tweet earlier today. According to him, this development will offer Salvadorans a low-cost airline that accepts BTC.
According to him, Volaris El Salvador’s ability to accept payments in BTC will help the government increase flight offerings for Salvadorans.
However, the president’s tweet met a lot of criticism, with a Twitter user going by @Jiraiya_elsabio pointing out that the state-run Chivo wallet has not worked for a day. The user added that the wallet’s downtime has seen people lose money because they cannot convert BTC to fiat and vice versa. The concerned citizen urged Bukele to focus on fixing the current issue before his BTC project loses credibility.
Another user ridiculed the president’s announcement, saying,
But I hope that the airplanes do work and do not fall like the Chivo.
This news comes after Salvadoran aviation authorities gave Volaris the go-ahead to operate in the country a month ago.
Increasing efforts to make Salvadorans warm up to crypto as resistance mounts
Before this, Bukele announced that the Salvadoran government had slashed off $0.20 (£0.15) per gallon of gas for citizens that pay in BTC. According to him, the government offered this subsidy after the state company Chivo negotiated with leading gas stations.
However, the government still met resistance, with citizens asking why the subsidy was only available for those that pay through the Chivo wallet. Other citizens considered this subsidy partial, seeing as the government would use taxes from Salvadorans that don’t own vehicles to maintain the offering.
Apart from lowering fuel prices, the government also reinvested $4 million (£2.91 million) worth of BTC gains to finance the development of infrastructure like a veterinary hospital. According to Bukele, these funds did not reduce the number of BTC that the country owns, seeing as BTC surged after it purchased three dips.
El Salvador currently owns 700 BTC, which it bought when BTC was trading below $50,000.00 (£36,314.25). At the time of writing, the flagship cryptocurrency is changing hands at $64,212.57 (£46,638.55) after gaining 3.24% in 24 hours and 16.32% over the past seven days. This value means BTC is down less than 1.2% from its April 14 ATH of $64,863.10 (£47,109.10).
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