LARKIN AERIAL SUPPLY COMPANY (PTY.), LTD.: Australia (1921-1928). Following enactment of the 1920 Air Navigation Act, the government of Australia accepts tenders for the operation of new routes. After QANTAS (Queensland and Northern Territories Aerial Service, [Pty.], Ltd.) and West Australian Airways (Pty.), Ltd. had received contracts, a third is awarded on November 1, 1921 to Larkin, which had originally been formed in London in 1919 as the Larkin-Sopwith Aviation Company of Australasia. Equipped with Sopwiths, the carrier inaugurates operations over an Adelaide-Sydney route on June 2, 1924.
As the result of significant competition from the railroads, the company is granted permission to withdraw its frequency east of Coota-mundra, substituting branch lines from Hay to Melbourne and from Mil-dura to Broken Hill, the latter an important mining community now served commercially from the air for the first time.
Service is maintained over these routes in 1925-1928; however, at the end of the latter year, the company ceases operations when the government mail subsidy is withdrawn.
LARRY’S FLYING SERVICE: 3822 University Ave., P. O. Box 72348, Fairbanks, Alaska 99707, United States; Phone (907) 4749169; Fax (907) 474-8815; Http://www. larrysflying. com; Code J6; Year Founded 1978. Lawrence A. Chenaille and his wife Jean establish LFS at Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1978 to undertake passenger and cargo charter and contract service flights throughout Alaska and Western Canada. Scheduled frequencies are initiated in July 1982 linking the company’s base with Denali National Park and Mount McKinley. By 1985, the fleet comprises 1 each Cessna 206, Cessna 207A, Cessna 185, and Piper PA-23 Aztec.
Regularly scheduled third-level passenger flights to communities commence in 1986, with Galena, Bethel, and Kotzebue the first destinations. Frequencies are inaugurated in 1987-1988 to Tanana, Ruby, Al-lakaket, and Anakiuvuk Pass.
By 1989, enplanements total 18,040.
Airline employment in 1990 stands at 55 and the fleet includes 1 Aztec, 2 Cessna 207As, 3 Cessna 206s, and 6 Piper PA-31-310 Navajos.
Passenger boardings jump 18% to 22,000.
The payroll is increased by 9.1% in 1991 to 60 as a reconditioned Beech 99 joins the fleet during the first quarter.
Customer bookings inch up 0.2% to 25,028 and 1.3 million pounds of mail are also flown. Revenues are $4.3 million.
Airline employment stands at 35 in 1992 and the fleet includes 7 Navajos, 2 Cessna 207As, and 1 each Beech 99, Cherokee Six, Saratoga, Lance, and Aztec.
Passenger boardings climb 3% to 27,531.
The workforce still stands at 35 in 1993 but the fleet has grown to include 6 Piper PA-31-310 Navajos, 5 Piper PA-32 Cherokee Sixes, 4 Cessna 207As, 1 Pilatus Britten-Norman PBN-2 Islander, and 2 Beech 99s.
Unhappily, customer bookings decline by 30% to 12,339.
Passenger boardings plunge an additional 30% in 1994 to 8,696; however, 242,000 FTKs are flown.
Although there are again no changes in the workforce in 1995, the fleet is reduced to just 12 aircraft: 4 Navajos, 2 Beech 99s, 1 Cherokee Six, 2 C-207As, and 1 each Piper Aztec, Cherokee Lance, and Saratoga.
Enplanements inch up 2% to 8,847.
One Beech 99 is withdrawn in 1996. Encountering power problems, the June 4 takeoff of a Cessna 207 from the gravel strip at Akiachak is aborted; the aircraft is unable to stop and overruns the runway, losing its nosegear and nosing over. Both crewmen aboard receive slight injuries.
Passenger boardings plunge 11.3% to 7,494.
The company’s 10 aircraft transport a total of 7,185 customers in 1997, a 4.1% decline.
While en route from Gambell to Nome via Kaltag on a February 6, 1998 air taxi service, a new PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain with a pilot and nine passengers suffers fuel exhaustion; the aircraft makes a forced landing into snow seven mi. W of its destination. No injuries are reported.
Larry’s enjoys a good traffic year as passenger boardings jump 26.1% to 9,000.
During the first quarter of 1999, a new homepage is opened on the World Wide Web.
While en route on a June 11 all-cargo service from Fairbanks to Galena via Tanana, a Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain with one pilot, crashes through trees into the Yukon River some 1.5 mi. from its intermediate stop. The flyer is killed.
Customer bookings during these 12 months fall 7.3% to 8,000.
A total of 20 full-time pilots are employed at the beginning of 2000 to fly the company’s fleet, which now includes 4 PA-31-310 Navajos and 3 PA-32-301 Saratogas.
For the first time, the salmon runs along the entire Yukon watershed collapse. By fall, subsistence salmon fishing must be shut down and Gov. Tony Knowles declares an emergency. In addition to the economic loss, thousands of dogs in rural bush areas, used to haul sleds and which depend upon salmon as their food source, face starvation or liquidation. Something must be done to avert this disaster and a number of small airlines, coming off a bad year caused by rising fuel and insurance costs, are able to assist, while also enjoying renewed profits.
The key to the situation, in the eyes of many, is the transport of donated dog food and fish obtained by local governments and tribes as the result of press reports of the failed salmon returns. In late August and September, a massive food shipment is organized by Warbelow’s at Fairbanks, with support from the U. S. Postal Service and other small airlines.
Because Warbelow’s has made special arrangements with its competitors, the USPS, which will not be directly involved in distribution, agrees to allow the donated food to be classified as bypass mail, for which rock-bottom postage is charged. The entire $25,000 bill will be paid by the Tanana Chiefs Conference, which also rents refrigeration to hold frozen food awaiting delivery.
Under the direction of chief pilot Michael Morgan, Warbelow’s, which has the only bypass mail shipping permit in Fairbanks, runs the packages through its meter and with USPS assistance, farms out this mail for delivery. The airlines involved, including Warbelow’s Air Ventures, Frontier Flying Service, Arctic Circle Air Service, Belair, Larry’s, Servant Air, Tanana Air Service, Tatonduk Air Service, and Wright’s Air Service, are paid a rate per pound (between 400 and $1 depending on distance), to haul the approximately 100 tons of food to villages along the Yukon, Tanana, and Koyukuk rivers.
LAS (LIGNES AERIENNE SEYCHELLES, LTD.): Seychelles (1987-1988). LAS is established by Paul Lewis at Mahe in January 1987. Equipped with a single Boeing 707-323C, it undertakes all-cargo charters to Malawi and Botswana in southern Africa, as well as Singapore and Perth, Australia. Unable to establish economic viability, the company folds in 1988.
LAS (LINEAS AEREAS SANTAFECINAS, S. A.): Argentina (1986-1992). Established at Rosario in 1986, LAS is outfitted with two Rockwell Aero Commander 690s provided by the provincial government and is requested to provide third-level scheduled flights to communities throughout Santafecinas. In 1988, two CASA C-212-200 Avio-cars are leased from their Spanish manufacturer and these remain in service for four years.
As a result of the general recession of the early 1990s, LAS is forced to retrench and the CASAs are returned. Schedules are often missed and the Aero Commander service, while continuing to provide service, might better be described as that of an on-demand air taxi. Operations cease in 1992.
LAS VEGAS AIRLINES: P. O. Box 15105, Las Vegas, Nevada, 89114, United States; Phone (702) 647-3056; Fax (702) 647-1846; Http://www. lasvegasair. com; Code 6G; Year Founded 1973. LVA, billing itself as “The Grand Canyon Professionals,” is founded by Donald J. Donohue and his wife Joan at Las Vegas, Nevada, in October 1973 as a sight-seeing concern offering various air tour packages. In addition to a flight school and Piper dealership, scenic air tours over the Grand Canyon and charters to destinations throughout the U. S. are also available. Revenue flights commence on November 23.
Operations continue apace in 1974-1977. Early in 1978, scheduled frequencies are initiated, linking the company’s base with the Grand Canyon. A Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain and its occupants are lost in a crash at Las Vegas on August 30.
It is reported in 1979 that more than 90% of the company’s traffic is foreign speaking. The company begins a process of diversification by acquiring Las Vegas Piper, the local smallplane distributorship from which it has been acquiring its aircraft.
A total of 36,069 passengers are carried by the company’s 10 Navajo Chieftains during 1980; however, as a result of currency fluctuations, bookings drop 19% in 1981 to 29,159. Still, the workforce is increased by 29.7% to 48.
To attract additional foreign business, the company opens offices in England, France, Australia, Japan, Germany, Italy, and Norway in 1982 and offers its brochures in five languages.
The recession; however, continues to bite into company success and bookings fall 29.3% to 20,622.
Flight 88, a Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain with 10 aboard en route for the Grand Canyon, crashes at Peach Springs, Arizona, on August 17, 1983; there are no survivors. Enplanements for the year plunge another 23.6% to 15,744.
In 1984, airline employment totals 43 and the fleet is half of what it was 5 years earlier. Customer bookings fall another 13.5% to 12,421. The workforce is cut by a third in 1985 to 28 as business continues to slip badly, with passenger boardings plunging 43.6% to 7,002.
Employment drops by another 19.2% in 1986 to 21 and the fleet now includes 4 Piper Chieftains and 1 Saratoga. Still, the year is good traffic-wise as enplanements jump 78.9% to 12,530. Airline employment grows 14.3% in 1987 to 24 and orders are placed for 2 more Chieftains. Passenger boardings swell 17.5% to 14,728.
The workforce is increased by another 16.2% in 1988 to 34. Lean bookings bring further equipment reductions and only three PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftains are on the flight line. The scheduled service is now relinquished and the company reverts to its original on-demand charter status.
The year’s enplanements decline by 5.8% to 13,874.
Business picks up in 1989 and another Navajo Chieftain is obtained. Passenger boardings jump 13% to 15,684.
A fifth Chieftain is purchased in 1990. In order to generate even more foreign bookings, general sales agents are appointed for South Africa, Canada, and the U. K.
Customer bookings accelerate 22.6% to 19,230, due largely to the cost of foreign travel and fear of war in the Mideast.
Company employment is cut by 8.8% in 1991 to 31. A Navajo Chieftain crashes at Temple Bar, Arizona, on December 10 (five dead).
Still, the fear of the Iraq situation causes more customers to choose Las Vegas and passenger boardings shoot up 45.8% to 28,043.
The payroll decline is reversed in 1992, growing 16.1% to 36. The 5 Chieftains increase ridership by 3% to 29,129.
In 1993, Chairman Donohue oversees a workforce of 29, a 14.7% decline. Although the fleet remains unchanged, orders are outstanding for two more PA-31-350s.
The number of overseas visitors declines, forcing passenger traffic to fall by 13.7% to 25,126.
Airline employment increases to 41 in 1994 and the fleet now includes 8 Chieftains.
With 97% of its traffic made up of foreign tourists, Las Vegas watches its renewed Grand Canyon tour traffic surge 48.7% to 37,369.
The most successful and profitable year in the company’s history gives way to tragedy in the next. On February 13, 1995, a Piper Chieftain with a pilot and nine Taiwanese tourists aboard reports an engine out. The aircraft crashes during its attempt to return from a point south of the Grand Canyon to Grand Canyon Airport at Tusayan (eight dead).
After this disaster, the company suffers a continuing decline, requiring a workforce reduction of 17.7% to 18. Enplanements drop 26.2% to 27,569.
The employee population is increased to 36 in 1996. Just after landing at Grand Canyon on February 28, a PA-31-350 with a pilot and nine passengers, suffers the collapse of its main landing gear as it slides across an icy runway. No injuries are reported.
Passenger boardings continue to fall this year, dropping 9.9% to 24,850.
Services continue in 1997 with six Navajos. Customer bookings plunge another 40% to 14,731.
On May 15, 1998, a new subsidiary, Virgin Islands International Airlines, is created to operate scheduled passenger services from St. Thomas. LVA will continue to hold the FAA operating certificate under which VIIA will operate.
Jehu Hand is named president of the new operation and on September 17 announces an agreement with the government of the Virgin Islands. In addition to a $50,000 development contribution, the government agrees to endorse and help market the new entrant as it promotes its services. Simultaneously, plans are announced for the inauguration of 14-times-a-day deep-discount services in October from St. Thomas to San Juan and St. Croix and from San Juan to St. Croix, plus a daily return service from St. Thomas to Antigua.
The first of several turboprop aircraft bearing the VIIA emblem is unveiled in ceremonies at Dana Point, California, on September 22.
Overall passenger boardings drop 21% to 12,000.
By the beginning of 1999, airline employment has been cut by 11.1% to 32.
LASA (LINEAAEREASACIFI, S. A.): Cerrito 1320, Piso 3, Capital Federal, Buenos Aires, 1010, Argentina; Phone 54 (1) 812-3390; Fax 54 (1) 811-2966; Code CT; Year Founded 1993. cATa Linea Aerea Sacifi, S. A. is reformed at Buenos Aires in 1993 and renamed. Roque Pugliese remains president as his company receives a new corporate identity, logo, and aircraft livery. Operations are continued from Buenos Aires to Bariloche, Viedma to Bariloche, and Viedma to Buenos Aires with a fleet of 4 Fokker F-27Js, 1 Israeli Aircraft Industries 102 Arava, and 2 Rockwell Turbo Commanders. Operations continue apace in 1994-1995.
Airline employment stands at 200 in 1996 and through June, en-planements total 2,086. Flights continue in 1997-2000, during which years two Fairchild-Hiller FH-227Bs are acquired.
LASA (LINEA AEREA SUD AMERICANA, S. A.): Chile (1964-1983). LASA is founded at Santiago de Chile in 1964 as an allcargo carrier offering general purpose and beef-hauling charters both within the nation and over the Andes to Argentina. Services are started with a fleet of 5 Curtiss C-46 Commandos, which are eventually succeeded in 1976-1977 by 2 Douglas DC-6s acquired from LADECO Chilean Airlines, S. A.
Unable to pay higher fuel costs or make a profit in the poor economy of the early eighties, LASA closes down in 1983.
LASA (LINEAAEROPOSTALE SANTIAGO-ARICA, S. A.): Chile (1929-1932). Having received authorization from Chilean President Carlos Ibanez del Campo, FAN (Fuerza Aerea Nacional) (National Air Force) founder Commandante Arturo Merino Bonitez forms LASA as a division of his military organization on March 5, 1929.
Equipped with 12 de Havilland DH 60 Gipsy Moths, the pioneer airline, in late spring, inaugurates regular mail and passenger service from Santiago de Chile to Arica on the Peruvian frontier, via Ovalle, La Serena, Vallenar, Copiapo, Antofagasta, Tocopilla, and Iquique.
A total of 762 passengers are carried over this route during the year’s final three quarters.
FAN takes delivery of seven Fairchild FC-2W2s in early 1930 for its airline division; these are followed by four Ford 5-ATs, one of which is lost in a December 22 crash. New routes are opened southward to Puerto Montt via Chillan and Temuco. More than 5,000 passengers have been transported by year’s end.
The LASA fleet is increased in 1931 by the addition of six Fairchild FC-2s, again delivered via FAN. As guests of the Chilean government, the Prince of Wales and his brother the Duke of Kent are flown from Antofagasta to Santiago in February.
The route network is increased as the American-made trimotors fly over the Andes to the Chilean cities of San Juan and Mendoza.
An FC-2W2 is destroyed in a February 27, 1932 crash. On July 21, under terms of government decree No. 247, the airline is separated from FAN and made an independent agency under the name LanChile Airlines (Linea Aerea Nacional Chile, S. A.).
LASER (LINEAS AEREAS DE SERVICIO EJECUTIVO REGIONAL, S. A.): Avenida Francisco de Miranda Torre, Bazer Bolivar, Piso 8, El Marques, Caracas, D. F., Venezuela; Phone 58 (2) 2356181; Fax 58 (2) 235-8359; Http://www. laser. com. ve; Code KZ; Year Founded 1993. Capt. Jose Augusto Azpurua, founder of VIASA (Vene-zolana Internacional de Aviacion, S. A.) and a chief consultant in the launch of Aserca (Aerolineas Regional de Centro, S. A.), joins with his brother, Capt. Rodolfo Azpurua, and a group of experienced commercial pilots to establish LASER at Caracas toward the end of 1993. With the promise of good service at affordable prices, the veterans attract a sufficient number of investors to begin operations.
Employing a single Douglas DC-9-14, christened El Pitufo and outfitted with full-size, first-class leather seats, the company inaugurates scheduled flights in the spring of 1994 between Caracas and Porlamar (Margarita Island).
Over the next six years, two more DC-9s, Dash-32s are chartered and daily return service is also initiated to Maracaibo and Puerto Ordaz. A Boeing 727-224AF freighter is also operated.
Airline employment totals 90 at the beginning of 2000.
LATAVIO LATVIYSKIE AVIALINII (LATVIAN AIRLINES, A. S.): Latvia (1992-1995). Following national independence in 1992, the former Aeroflot Soviet Airlines division based at Riga is reformed as Latavio to provide scheduled passenger and cargo flights, as well as charter services. President/General Manager Edward I. Makharev acquires a fleet of ex-Russian aircraft from his former unit. These include 14 Tupolev Tu-134B-3s, 1 Tu-154B, and 7 Tu-154B-2s. Revenue operations commence and continue, primarily over the old routes to Moscow and other Russian communities.
While landing at Stepanavan, Armenia, on April 6, 1993, the nosegear of an An-24RV with 4 crew and 28 passengers, collapses, forcing the plane to overrun the runway by 600 m. There are no fatalities.
In January 1994, the company receives an offer from SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System) to participate in the formation of a new Riga-based Latvian airline. Under terms of the arrangement, SAS would acquire 40% shareholding and provide technical and financial support. The offer is not immediately accepted.
Domestic and international markets are visited with a fleet that now includes 5 Tu-154B-3s, 9 Tu-134s, 9 Antonov An-24s, 2 An-26s, and 2 Yakovlev Yak-40s.
Enplanements in January-July are 50,674.
Airline employment stands at 500 in 1995. A major traffic decline is suffered during the first half of the year and figures are again reported only through this period.
Customer bookings are down 4.8% to 48,354 and freight falls 24% to 781,000 FTKs. The company cannot survive this plunge.
At a meeting of the stockholders in early September, a management change is immediately ordered. It is also announced that the company will discontinue all regularly scheduled flights on October 1. Newly formed Air Baltic, A. S. will take them over.
LATB (LINHA AEREA TRANSCONTINENTAL BRASILEIRA, S. A.): Brazil (1944-1951) . LATB is formed at Rio de Janeiro on July 22, 1944. Following V-J Day in 1945, a fleet of 5 British-made Avro Ansons is assembled and employed to undertake a series of route proving flights under the direction of President Col. Dulcidio Espirito Santo Cardoso.
Three ex-military Douglas C-47s (reconfigured to DC-3 civil standard) are purchased in January 1946; beginning in February, these aircraft join the Ansons in a year and a half of charter work around northeast Brazil.
In early 1948, LATB moves into a partnership arrangement with another new entrant, VASD (Viacao Aerea Santos Dumont, S. A.). Santo Cardoso becomes joint president and the two carriers share facilities, equipment, and other resources, as well as revenues. VASD, idle for part of 1947, now resumes its coastal routes while LATB, as the result of an August 27 government concession, starts two new routes: Sao Paulo-Rio de Janeiro direct and multistop Rio de Janeiro-Recife. The Ansons are withdrawn and after chartering two of its DC-3s to VASD, LATB leases two others from NAB (Navegacao Aerea Brasileira, S. A.).
A Beech 18 is acquired and the LATB route network is expanded in 1949. Local services are provided to destinations in Minas Gerais State, while an internal route to Fortaleza is opened via Conquista, Salvador, and Paulo Afonso. All-cargo flights are started between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo with a newly purchased Curtiss C-46A Commando.
Despite its growing success, LATB, with VASD leaning upon it, remains a fragile operation. In August 1950, the Curtiss is severely damaged in a crash, thereby ending a fairly profitable all-freight operation.
Within six months, in January 1951, one of the NAB DC-3s is destroyed in an accident. LATB’s financial situation becomes hopeless as claims on its meager resources mount. The relationship with VASD is ended and in August, Santo Cardoso’s carrier is purchased by REAL, S. A.
LATCHARTER, A. S.: 2 Blaumania St., Riga, LV-1050, Latvia; Phone 371 (7) 207 392; Fax 371 (7) 207 398; Code LT; Year Founded 1992. Post-Soviet Latvia’s first international charter company is set up at Riga in late 1992. Yuri Rubenchik is named managing director and 4 Tupolev Tu-134As are acquired.
Ad hoc revenue flights, including business and VIP charters, are launched at the end of March 1993. These continue through the remainder of the decade to Athens, Bologna, Naples, and other European points, as well as destinations in Western Europe and Asia.
By the end of the decade, the fleet comprises just 2 Tu-134As. A total of 38 workers are employed at the beginning of 2000.
World History
