SCHUBACH AVIATION: Palomar Airport, 200 Palomar Airport Road, Carlsbad, California 92008, United States; Phone (760) 9290307; Fax (760) 929-0365; Year Founded 1995. Schubach is established at McClellan-Palomar Airport in 1995 to provide executive and small group passenger charters throughout the U. S.; 3 full-time and 11 part-time pilots are employed. Revenue flights commence with 2 each British Aerospace BAe (HS) 125 Hawkers and Beech King Air 90s, plus 1 each Cessna 501 Citation I, Learjet 35A Century III, Beech King Air 100, Super King Air 200, and Super King Air 300. A Hawker bizjet is also stationed at Lakefront Airport at New Orleans, Louisiana.
SCIBE AIRLIFT, S. A.: P. O. Box 614, Kinshasa 1, Democratic Republic of the Congo; Phone 243 (12) 26 237; Fax 243 (12) 24386; Code ZM; Year Founded 1979. Originally known as SBZ Cargo, S. A.,
Scibe is formed at Kinshasa in 1979 to provide regular cargo flights within Zaire and charter and contract service operations to various destinations worldwide. Regular passenger services are undertaken with 4 Vickers Viscount 808Cs leased from the Sultan of Oman, linking the capital’s N’Jili Airport with Goma.
During the early 1980s, services are maintained with the 4 Viscounts, 1 Lockheed L-100-30 Hercules freighter, and 1 Boeing 727-44C purchased from South African Airways (Pty.), Ltd. in 1982, A pair of B-727-100s (one each -30 and -89), a Lockheed L-100-30 Hercules freighter, and a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter arrive in 1983.
A B-707-329C is delivered in December 1984. In the first quarter of 1985, the privately owned airline, led by Saolena Bemba, initiates scheduled B-727-100 services from Kinshasa to 12 domestic points. In October, the fleet is increased by the addition of a B-707-321B Stratoliner.
In 1986, two Fokker F.27-400Ms and three F.27-500s join the fleet. In February, three Vickers Viscount 808Cs are sold to Air Charter Service, S. A. The company’s Twin Otter flies from Goma to Burundi and Rwanda.
Operations continue apace in 1987-1988, as two more Fokkers are purchased. Three Beech King Air 200s are acquired in 1989 and operations continue to link the carrier’s base with Goma, Kisangani, and Lubumbashi. The Hercules freighter is removed early in the year.
Operations continue apace in 1990-1992. These years are particularly costly. On September 10, 1991, one of the two F.27-400Ms is lost in a nonfatal landing accident.
The second F.27-400M with 6 crew and 31 passengers strikes high ground 10 km. out from the runway while on initial approach to Goma on December 14, 1992; there are no survivors.
By 1993-1995, Managing Director Saolona’s company employs 978 workers and is the largest airline in Zaire. The fleet now comprises 1 Boeing 707-329C, 1 B-707-321B, the original B-727-100s, 2 Twin Otters, 2 Fokker F.27-400Ms, 3 F.27-500s, and the Hercules. An Antonov An-32 is wet-leased from Moscow Airways late in the year.
Flown by a Russian crew, the An-32 fails its takeoff from Kinsasha on January 8, 1996 and crashes into a crowded market; a crewman is killed, along with 300 citizens on the ground. The survivors must be protected by security personnel from angry crowds.
The turboprops and other smaller aircraft are now sold and schedules are maintained with the two Boeing trijets and the B-707-329C. Shabair, S. A. now becomes the country’s largest private airline.
Despite the civil war which, in early 1997, sees the nation renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo, Scibe Airlift continues to provide lift to Gbadolite, Goma, Isiro, Kindu, Kisangani, Lubumbashi, Mban-daka, and international destinations. Continued political upheaval does not prevent flights in 1998-1999.
A total of 980 workers are employed at the beginning of 2000. The company’s B-727-89 remains in operation. Unhappily, a B-727-30 is not.
SCILLONIA AIRWAYS, LTD.: United Kingdom (1965-1968). Remembered as the last major U. K. operator of the de Havilland DH-89A Dragon Rapide, Scillonia is founded at St. Just’s Airfield in Cornwall in the summer of 1965. The first DH-89A is purchased in July; christened Bishop, it is employed to fly ad hoc charters until winter.
Three more Dragon Rapides, Tresco, Bryher, and Samson, are delivered in May and June, 1966, respectively. These begin flying a scheduled passenger schedule from Newquay and Land’s End to the Scilly Isles. Scheduled operations are suspended in October.
The Scilly Isles scheduled route is resumed in May 1967. Charter flights to northern France, particularly those airlifting crayfish, provide welcome additional income. These operations continue into 1968. In debt and unable to take delivery of two Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneers, Scillonia now suspends operations and is liquidated; the entire company sells for a mere ?1,299.
SCOLTA (SOCIEDAD COLOMBIANA DE TRANSPORTES AEREOS, S. A.): Colombia (1947-1948). Following the bankruptcy of Lineas Aereas TACA de Colombia, S. A. in May 1947, its three Douglas DC-3s are purchased to form the new entrant SCOLTA, which begins flying from Bogota and Medellin to Cartagena and Barranquilla. Having begun life with National Air Transport in the U. S. in 1930, the Ford Tri-Motor 5-AT-86 is acquired from SAGO, the South American Gulf Oil Company, late in the year.
As is the situation with several newly formed Colombian carriers at this time, financial difficulties lead to shut down, in this case, in early 1948.
SCORPIO AVIATION, S. A.E.: 17 Aswan Square, El Mohandesin, Giza, 12411, Egypt; Phone 202 346 3709; Fax 202 346 1287; Code SCP; Year Founded 1990. Mohamed Souka establishes this private operation at Giza in 1990 as a general aviation concern emphasizing agricultural support activities such as crop spraying. In mid-decade, the company is enlarged to provide lightplane air taxi flights, as well as cargo charters.
Scorpio is upgraded in 2000 into a scheduled regional airline with 135 employees. Revenue operations are launched with a pair of leased Aeriens de Transport Regional ATR42-320s. Two more ATR42-320s previously flown by Ethiopian Airlines, S. C. are chartered from Fortis Prop Jet and are delivered in mid-June.
World History
