SERCA (SERVICIO DE CARGAAEREA, S. A.): Costa Rica (19811994). SERCA is founded as a private, all-cargo airline at San Jose in 1981 to offer regular charter and contract services flights to Miami. Initial services are started with a Convair CV-880 freighter, christened The Bullet, and a Douglas DC-8-55F. A decade later, President Capt. Vicente Perez Alvarado’s 20-employee carrier maintains the same services with a pair of Convair CV-880Fs.
A third Convair freighter arrives in 1992. Financial losses mount throughout 1993, forcing the company to shut its doors in 1994.
SERCA (SERVICIO ESPECIALIZADO DE CARGAAREA, S. A.): Colombia (1992-1993). SERCA is established at Bogota in 1992 to offer ad hoc all-cargo services to worldwide destinations. President Capt. Vincente Perez Alvardo, whose company is a subsidiary of his San Jose-based operation, recruits a workforce of 20 and obtains a pair of Convair CV-880Fs and a Sud Est SE-210 Caravelle XB3, previously operated by Sterling Airways, A. S., with which to initiate services.
While landing at Cayenne on May 6, 1993 on a positioning flight, the undercarriage of the Caravelle XB3 with four crew collapses and the fuselage fails fore and aft of the wing; there are no fatalities.
Unhappily, the accident and recession fatally impacts the new entrant, which is unable to gain viability and is forced to shut down.
SERENDIP AIRWAYS, LTD.: Sri Lanka (1980-1986). Serendip is formed in 1980 as a joint enterprise by the Maharaja business organization and Malaysia Air Charter, Ltd. Employing a Shorts SC-7 Skyvan and later a Shorts 360, the domestic carrier, employing Malaysian flight personnel, undertakes to link Colombo with Jaffna, Batticaloa, Minner-iya, and Trincomalee. The failure of MAC in 1986 brings ruin to Serendip.
SERIB WINGS, S. p.A.: Italy (1991-1995). Serib Wings is established in 1991 to offer scheduled third-level passenger services to domestic and regional destinations. Operations commence with 1 each Fairchild-Swearingen Metro and Metro II, the former leased from Air Vendee, S. A.
The Metro is withdrawn in 1993 as a consequence of Air Vendee’s merger into Regional Airlines, S. A. It is replaced during 1994 with a pair of leased British Aerospace BAe Jetstream 31. The two new turboprops are equipped to handle both passengers and cargo. During the summer, the BAes inaugurate night newspaper deliveries.
New roundtrip service is inaugurated in the spring of 1995 between Rome and Vicenza. The carrier is unable to maintain its viability and closes down before the end of the year.
SERVICE DE L’AERONAUTIQUE CIVILE, S. A. (SAC): France/ Madagascar (1937-1941). On September 1, 1937, the newly formed Air Afrique, S. A. (1) acquires the international route of Madagascar-based Regie Malagache, S. A. Domestic services, however, are turned over to this new operator, which is equipped with the SPCAs and two Bloch 120s previously flown by RM.
The scheduled network consists of two major roundtrip routes: Tananarive to Ihosy via Morondava, Tulear, and Fort Dauphin, and Tananarive to Maroantsetra via Majunga and Deigo Suarez.
Flights continue until February 1941 when Vichy France creates the new state carrier Reseau Aerienne Francaise, S. A.
World History
