Aerolíneas Argentinas: Difference between revisions
Flag-carrier airline of Argentina
Coordinates: 34°36′12″S 58°22′54″W / 34.6033°S 58.3817°W
Aerolíneas Argentinas, formally Aerolíneas Argentinas S.A.,[5] is Argentina‘s largest airline[6] and the country‘s flag carrier.[7] The airline was created in 1949, from the merger of four companies and started operations in December 1950. A consortium led by Iberia took control of the airline in 1990, and Grupo Marsans acquired the company and its subsidiaries in 2001, following a period of severe financial difficulties that put the airline on the brink of closure. The company has been run by the Argentine government since late 2008, when the country regained control of the airline after it was taken over from the Spanish owners. As of December 2014[update], Aerolíneas Argentinas was state-owned. It has its headquarters in Buenos Aires. SkyTeam membership was achieved in late August 2012; the airline’s cargo division became a member of SkyTeam Cargo in November 2013.
Aerolíneas Argentinas and its former sister company Austral Líneas Aéreas operates from two hubs, both located in Buenos Aires: Aeroparque Jorge Newbery and Ministro Pistarini International Airport. Its narrow body fleet, used on domestic and regional routes, consists of Embraer 190, Boeing 737-700, 737-800 and 737 MAX 8, whereas intercontinental and transoceanic services are flown on the wide body Airbus A330-200.
History[edit]
Early years to privatisation[edit]
An Aerolíneas Argentinas DC-4 at Ministro Pistarini International Airport, circa 1958
The history of the airline began in 1929, when Compagnie Générale Aéropostale (Aéropostale) started airmail operations between Buenos Aires and Asunción using Laté-25 equipment, later expanding its network to cities located in the Patagonia.[8] Many French pilots (including aviator and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry) flew for the company in its beginnings.[9] Argentine personnel replaced the Frenchmen as they gradually withdrew from the airline, and shortly after Aéropostale’s Argentine subsidiary Aeroposta Argentina was formed. In 1947, this airline became a mixed-stock company in which the government had a 20% stake and private investors held the balance.[8] As Aeroposta expanded its network southwards and incorporated the Douglas DC-3 into its fleet, another three mixed-stock companies were in operation at the time: Aviación del Litoral Fluvial Argentino (ALFA) mainly operated flying boats northwards to the Mesopotamia, Flota Aérea Mercante Argentina (FAMA) operated overseas services with DC-4s as its mainstay equipment, and Zonas Oeste y Norte de Aerolíneas Argentinas (ZONDA) was mainly concerned with operations in the northwest region.[8] These carriers became unprofitable and President Juan Perón had them amalgamated into a single state-owned company on 14 May 1949.[8][10][11] The state holding was officially rebranded as Aerolíneas Argentinas-Empresa del Estado.[12] The four companies comprising the state holding ceased independent operations on 31 December 1949.[12]
Aerolíneas Argentinas started operations on its own on 7 December 1950.[13] In February 1950, almost 10 months prior to the start of operations, five new Convairs were already acquired.[14] As early as 1950, the Douglas DC-6 was added to the fleet, and was used to launch a weekly Buenos Aires–Rio de Janeiro–Natal–Dakar–Lisbon–Paris–Frankfurt flight in late 1950.[15] Soon afterwards, Douglas DC-4s joined the fleet and services were inaugurated to Santiago de Chile, Lima, Santa Cruz, and São Paulo. By March 1953, the airline’s network was 35,000 miles (56,000 km) long, flown with DC-3s, DC-4s, DC-6s, Convair-Liner 240s, and Short Sandringhams.[16] The company carried 291,988 passengers in 1954,[17][nb 1] and 327,808 in 1955.[19] On 8 February 1957, it was reported that Aerolíneas Argentinas had ordered ten F-27 Friendships.[20][nb 2] The Comet had begun commercial jet services in the 1950s, and the carrier once again set the pace among the South American airlines, when Aerolíneas’ president A. Cdre. Juan José Güiraldes persuaded Argentina’s President Arturo Frondizi to buy six of them,[10] becoming the first overseas airline in ordering the type.[23] The first of these aircraft departed Hatfield Aerodrome on 2 March 1959; over 18 hours were needed for it to cover a distance of 7,075 miles (11,386 km) between Hatfield and Buenos Aires.[24] On 7 March, she was christened Las Tres Marías by Frondizi’s wife Elena Faggionato at Ezeiza Airport.[25] Comet flights to New York City began in May 1959.[26]: 589
In the early 1960s, the fleet consisted of four Comet 4s, four Convair 240s, 15 DC-3s, six DC-4s, five DC-6s and six Sandringhams, whereas the ten F-27s ordered in 1957 were still pending…
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