Established at Winnipeg’s airport in 1974 to offer both charter and scheduled services. In addition to a fleet of ex-Canadian Forces Douglas C-47s (military DC-3s), the company offers scheduled flights with a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter. The first commercially appointed DC-3 arrives in 1976. In 1978, the DHC and DC-3 are sold when a Con-vair CV-640 is purchased from Pacific Western Airlines, Ltd. The fleet is simultaneously enhanced by the addition of a DC-4.
The four-engine Douglas transport is lost in a crash at Thompson on June 1, 1979 and it is replaced by another aircraft; two more DC-4s purchased in 1980 are dedicated to all-cargo service. One of these is written off following an accident on December 2, 1981. The CV-640 is sold to Worldways Canada, Ltd. in 1983. At this point, the carrier is in significant financial difficulty as the result of a recession-caused traffic downturn. Unable to revive, it agrees to be taken over by Wiarton, Ontario-based Soundair, Ltd., later Soundair Express, Ltd., in late 1984.
AERO TRANS COLOMBIA DE CARGO: United States (19931994) . ATCC is established at Miami in 1993 to provide all-cargo services to Bogota. Revenue operations commence with a single Douglas DC-8-54F, but end within a year.
AERO TRANSPORT, S. A.: France (1922). This short-lived airline is formed at Paris in early 1920. Equipped with Sopwith biplanes and working with the Swiss Ecole-Aero, it inaugurates every-five-days service between Paris and Geneva on July 1. Operations cease following the summer season.
AERO TRANSPORT FLUGBETRIEBSGESELLSCHAFT, GmbH.: Austria (1962-1964). ATF is established at Vienna in the early spring of 1962 to offer air holiday charter and inclusive-tour flights to destinations throughout Europe. A Lockheed L-049 Constellation is purchased from Trans World Airlines (TWA) and employed to launch nonscheduled services during the early summer.
At the beginning of 1963, an L-749A is purchased from Skyways, Ltd. along with another L-749A previously operated by the huge U. S. Transocean Air Lines (TAL). In late fall, following the close of the summer tourist season, the Constellations are again allowed to fly worldwide charters. In November, one of the aircraft is impounded at Djibouti, French Somaliland, after French authorities find it is transporting arms for Yemeni Royalists fighting Egypt.
Although the Lockheed held in Africa is eventually released, difficulties continue to plague the carrier, most of a financial nature. Just after the holiday season begins in 1964, one of the L-749As is impounded at Vienna’s Schwechat Airport to cover corporate debt. Unable to raise funds enough to free its plane or to continue, ATF folds.
World History
