AEROCONDOR (AEROVIAS CONDOR DE COLOMBIA, LTDA.): Colombia (1955-1978). Former AVIANCA Colombian Airlines (Aerovias Nacionales de Colombia, S. A.) pilots led by Louis Donado and Juan Millon found Aerovias Condor de Colombia, S. A.
At Barranquilla on February 3, 1955. After assembling a fleet of Curtiss C-46s, all-cargo service is inaugurated to Bogota on October 7.
Freight-only flights are also inaugurated to the Colombian cities of Cali, Medellin, Cartegena, and Pereira during 1956-1959 and Douglas DC-4s are added to the fleet late in the latter year.
DC-4 passenger frequencies are inaugurated over the carrier’s major routes on January 12, 1960. The four-engine Douglas transports also undertake charter services, on behalf of the energy industry, to San Juan, Miami, San Antonio, and New Orleans. In 1962, a service is opened to San Andres.
Having obtained 2 DC-6Bs and traffic rights from the U. S. and Colombia governments, thrice-weekly all-cargo operations are started to Miami in February 1963 from Barranquilla, Medellin, and Bogata. When AVIANCA Colombian Airlines (Aerovias Nacionales de Colombia,
S. A.) purchases the failed SAM (Sociedad Aeronautica de Medellin, S. A.) in September, Aerovias Condor, S. A. mounts an unsuccessful challenge to the takeover.
Passengers are carried on the Miami run, beginning in 1964; new routes are opened in 1965 to Curacao, Aruba, and to Miami via San Andres.
Local services in northeast Colombia are assumed in 1966 following the collapse of Taxader (Taxi Aereo de Santander, S. A.), but these are soon passed on to an air taxi operator as the decision is taken to concentrate on trunk and Miami services.
On April 29, an order is placed for a BAC 1-11-400, the first for the British short-haul jet placed by a South American carrier. Despite positive reports on the aircraft by company pilots, Aerocondor will allow the order to lapse and the plane will never be delivered.
Coming in from Miami, a chartered L-1649A with 7 crew and 52 passengers, crashes while on final approach to Bogota on December 18 (17 dead).
The landing gear of a C-46D, with three crew aboard, collapses while the aircraft is on its takeoff roll from Bogota on March 4, 1967; although the aircraft must later be written off, there are no fatalities.
En route from Barranquilla to Bogota on May 29, a DC-4 with 22 passengers is subjected to an explosion in its rear fuselage, which results in a large hole. No injuries are reported and the aircraft is able to land safely at its destination. It will later be determined that the blast has been caused by a time bomb.
On August 6, a DC-4, with 78 aboard and en route from Barranquilla to the island of San Andres, is hijacked by 4 Colombians and an Ecuadorian who force it to land in Havana. There the pirates seek asylum after drawing media attention to a Marxist Latin American solidarity conference being hosted in the Cuban capital. The Cubans release the aircraft and its passengers, protect the hijackers, and bill Aerocondor for landing fees and aircraft maintenance. The company pays the bill on August 21 in order to “keep good relations.”
A major marketing campaign is undertaken in 1969 to herald the arrival of the year’s first Lockheed L-188A, the former Flagship Cincinnati, purchased from American Airlines. The turboprop, sporting the carrier’s new livery, is delivered in April and placed into service on the Miami route on May 1.
On May 15 on a domestic flight from Barranquilla to San Andres Island, a gunman forces a DC-4 with 47 passengers to divert to Cuba.
The last piston engine DC-6B is retired in late 1970 as the fifth L-188A, the former American Airlines Flagship Cincinnati, is placed in service. A competitive battle now rages with SAM Colombia Airlines, S. A., a reformed subsidiary of AVIANCA Colombian Airlines (Aerovias Nacionales de Colombia, S. A.).
By January 1971, 5 L-188As are in service. Enplanements for the year total 265,780.
The workforce reaches 718 in 1972. The fleet now comprises 4 C-46s, 5 Electras, and 1 Beech Twin Bonanza; it is significantly strengthened by the arrival of the company’s first jetliner, a Boeing 720B, purchased from American Airlines. During the year, the airline, in a marketing move, shortens its name to Aerocondor and adopts a new logo and livery that features a stylized orange bird figure. An understanding is also arrived at with SAM Colombia Airlines, S. A. for schedule coordination so as to avoid cutthroat competition. Freight traffic is up 10% and passenger boardings rise 3% to 274,800.
In 1973, a new route is opened between Miami and the Colombian island of San Andres.
Just after takeoff from Bogota on August 27, an L-188A, with 6 crew and 36 passengers, smashes into El Cable hill; there are no survivors.
Operations continue apace in 1974. A Canadair CC-106 freighter with five crew strikes a pine tree while taking off from Medellin on February 22, 1975 and, completely losing control, crashes into a mountain 1200 m. from the airport; there are no survivors.
On July 10, just after takeoff from Bogota for a flight to Barranquilla, an L-188AF with four crew veers right and then sinks back, landing on top of a parked Aerocosta International, S. A. DC-6F on the ground. Both aircraft catch fire and are destroyed, with two men on the Lockheed killed.
Two L-188As are sold to VARIG Brazilian Airlines (Viacao Aerea Rio-Grandense, S. A.), one each in November and December.
Enplanements for the latter year reach 327,666.
Airline employment is increased by 13% in 1976 to 1,100. Another L-188AF joins the fleet, along with 2 Boeing 707-123Fs, reconfigured from aircraft first flown by American Airlines. New service is inaugurated from Miami to Port au Prince. The passenger models of the Elec-tra are all sold to VARIG Brazilian Airlines (Viacao Aerea Rio-Grandense, S. A.) by the end of the year and the last remaining Commandos are retired.
Passenger boardings increase 28% to 455,092 and freight traffic skyrockets 122% to 76.9 million FTKs.
Faced with increased competition and rising financial difficulties in 1977, the carrier’s traffic shrinks and its financial resources begin to decline. Still, it maintains scheduled passenger and cargo services between Bogota and Barranquilla, Medellin, Cali, Cartagena, San Andres, Pereira, Aruba, Curacao, Santo Domingo, and Miami. President Saul Pertuz Jimeno’s workforce grows by 200 and the fleet now includes 2 Boeing 707-123Fs, 1 B-707-120B, 2 B-720Bs, 2 L-188As, and 1 L-188AF freighter.
The company now becomes the first in South America to order the Airbus Industrie A300B4, which is received in December.
Overextended and unprofitable, Aerocondor soldiers on in 19781979, even though its Airbus flagship is repossessed by its manufacturer at the end of the 1979. Now the biggest airline in Colombia after AVIANCA, Aerocondor is able to stay in the air until June 1981, when it suddenly collapses. In Miami and throughout Colombia, all company aircraft and assets are immediately seized for payment of debts.
World History
