LAUMSA (LINEAS AEREAS MEXICANAS UNIDAS, S. A. de C. V.): Mexico (1950-1964). In 1950, Felipe Gutierrez de Lara, owner of TAT (Transportes Aereos de Tampico, S. A. de C. V.) , orchestrates a merger between his TAT, Aeronaves Oaxaca, S. A. de C. V., and SAN (Servicios Aereos Nacionales, S. A. de C. V.). The resulting amalgamation is registered as LAUSA (Lineas Aereas Unidas, S. A. de C. V.) (“United Air Lines”) and begins flying the routes of its predecessors with Avro Ansons, Cessna T-50s, and Douglas DC-2s and DC-3s, some still in military configuration. Principal destinations served from Mexico City include Putla, Ometepec, and Cacahuatepec.
While taking off from San Luis on November 27, 1951, a C-39 (military-configured DC-2) with 13 aboard, crashes; there are no survivors. Operations are conducted safely in 1952 and plans are made in April 1953 to operate Matamoros-Acapulco and Tampico with Lockheed L-1049s and permission for start-up is sought. Certification is not forthcoming and the concept is abandoned. Local routes are flown for another decade, during which time the carrier’s name is changed to LAUMSA.
On July 14, 1955, a DC-3 en route from Acapulco to Oaxaca crashes near the latter point, killing all 21 aboard. Two Curtiss C-46 Commandos enter service during 1957 and the fleet is upgraded in late 1961 with four Canadair DC-4M-2s.
In 1962, following a change in ownership, the carrier is awarded permission to fly from Tampico to the U. S. border town of Reynosa. In early 1964, the carrier is purchased by and merged into SAESA (Servi-cios Aereos Especiales, S. A. de C. V.).
LAURENTIDE AIR SERVICES, LTD.: Canada (1921-1925). After two summers of forest fire patrol and timberland charting, the aerial division of Quebec’s Laurentide Company is reorganized late in 1921 as the separate Laurentide Air Services, Ltd. Equipped with two original Curtiss HS-2Ls, the first of the ex-military flying boats to be employed on civil service anywhere, new pilot Managing Director/ William Roy Maxwell finds C$10,000 capitalization from shareholder Thomas Hall.
The fleet is increased by the addition of 1 each HS-2L, Loening M23 Air Yacht, and Vickers Viking IV amphibian. During the summer operating season of 1922, the 5 aircraft fly 688 hours, although the original 2 Curtiss machines must be written off after nonfatal takeoff accidents.
By transporting 310 revenue passengers, the carrier becomes one of the world’s first bush charter operations, providing not only contract and charter services on behalf of the parent, but forestry patrols and aerial mapping flights under charter to the Ontario government.
Nine additional HS-2Ls and a JN-4 (Can.) Jenny are acquired in 1923 as Laurentide becomes the first Canadian air transport company to allocate fleet numbers to its aircraft. A large headquarters and maintenance building is acquired at Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, as the staff continues to grow and the mapping work is expanded along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River and into the unrecorded regions north of the Manicoua-gan River.
A total of 1,480 hours are flown over 20,000 square miles of forest with an HS-2L and the Loening lost in nonfatal accidents. When the new Ontario Provincial Air Service, Ltd. is founded in the fall, it contracts with Laurentide for the modification and delivery of 13 civil HS-2Ls. During the year, some 550 passengers are carried.
The carrier’s Trois-Rivieres facility completes modification of the first contract HS-2L on April 21, 1924 and delivers it to the new OPAS provincial carrier. On May 21, Laurentide joins the Canadian Pacific Railroad in establishing a scheduled thrice-weekly service (the first in Canada) for the transport of passengers, mail, and express from the railhead at Angliers and the gold mines at Rouyn and Noranda. Considered the first air-rail cooperative operation of passenger aircraft, the service, flown by pilot Jack Caldwell in an HS-2L, is also remembered as the country’s first regular airmail service.
Laurentide’s principal operating base is transferred to Haileybury, Ontario, on July 31. On August 9, the company receives Post Office permission to issue its own airmail stamps, the first to be printed by a private concern in Canada. The premier Canadian airmail service is inaugurated on September 11 between Haileybury and the Rouyn and Noranda gold mines.
Financial difficulties ensue, and all but four of the 11 HS-2Ls are sold to the newly formed Ontario Provincial Air Service, Ltd. A number of pilots, including Maxwell, also transfer to the new state-sponsored carrier and business follows them. Still, the year is the company’s best. In 933 flying hours, a total of 1,004 passengers are carried, as well as 15,000 letters and 39.4 tons of freight.
Overextended and unable to recoup, the pioneer airline is in deep financial trouble by early January 1925. A ski-equipped de Havilland DH 9C is acquired to fly winter airmail from Haileybury to Rouyn and No-randa, but is lost in a nonfatal accident after only three runs. Laurentide shuts its doors; one HS-2L is sold to Northern Air Services, Ltd. and the other three are scrapped. In 1928, Maj. Gen. James MacBrien organizes the assets of Laurentide, the Canadian Fairchild Companies, and several other bush operations into Inter-Provincial Airways, Ltd., beginning Montreal-Fort Erie passenger and freight services.
World History
