Quencies are flown northward along the coast from Perth to Geraldtown. Other destinations served include Kalbarri, Eneabba, Southern Cross, Kalgoorlie, Kambalda, Useless Loop, Denham, and Carnarvon.
The fleet in the middle 1980s contains 3 Navajo Chieftains and 1 Aero Commander; Bunbury is added to the route network. Financial difficulties ensue for Managing Director D. Holzigar’s operation and although the fleet is downsized to 2 Chieftains and 1 PA-31 Navajo, the carrier is unable to maintain its viability and must cease operations in 1987.
AVIRON (THE PALESTINE AVIATION COMPANY, LTD.): Is-rael/Palestine (1936-1948). Supported openly by the Histadrut Federation of Labor and the Jewish Agency and covertly by the underground Haganah, this pioneer is established by Yitzhak Ben Yaacv at Afiqim, near the Sea of Galilee, in the British territory of Palestine on July 21, 1936.
Established to offer flight lessons and to develop scheduled services between Tel Aviv and Haifa and the Jordan Valley, the company acquires 1 de Havilland DH 82A Tiger Moth, 1 Polish RWD 8, and 1 RWD 13 and begins operations in March 1938. Services include not only training, but charter and supply drops to settler outposts as well.
The Tiger Moth is scrapped following its crash landing near Afiqim in May 1939. In 1940, the fleet includes 2 RWD 8s, 2 RWD 13s, 1 RWD 15, 3 Taylorcrafts, and 1 Miles M3A Falcon Major. Scheduled services are started to Tiberias. All the while, covert air reconnaissance missions are flown on behalf of Haganah—in secret due to British opposition. World War II developments in 1942 force scheduled activities to cease; however, a Czech-built Benes-Mraz Be.550 Bibi is acquired in June.
The British Mandate Government does not permit the resumption of scheduled operations in 1945. Aviron’s fleet flies charters within Palestine and internationally to Cyprus, Nicosia, and London. An ex-RAF Auster J/1 Autocrat is added on May 11, 1946, 2 Canadian-built DH 82Cs are acquired in August 1947 and 1 DH 89A Dragon Rapide is purchased in December. Meanwhile on November 29, the Benes-Mraz Be.550 is destroyed in a crash at Beit Yitzchak.
The Miles M3A crashes at Marsa-Aalem on February 12, 1948. Antiaircraft fire downs a Tiger Moth near Maale Hachamisha on March 28. On April 13, terrorists destroy the RWD 15 at Lydda Airport. An RWD 13 is destroyed on the ground when Egyptian Spitfires strafe Sde Dov airfield on May 15. The same month, antiaircraft fire claims the second DH 82C near Ramat Rachel and 2 Taylorcraft, an RWD 13, and an RWD 8, are transferred to the Israeli Defense Forces. At this point, Aviron ceases operations.
AVISPA (AEROVIAS INTERAMERICANAS DE PANAMA, S. A.): Panama (1951-1956). AVISPA (Aerovias Interamericanas de Panama, S. A.) is founded at Panama City in November 1951 specifically to transport shrimp from Panamanian ports to Miami. A C-46, leased from Lineas Interamericans Aereas, Ltda., is employed and flights, under a Panamanian government concession, continue for several months, beginning in March 1952. During the next two-plus quarters, cargo is hauled to and between the following markets: Barranquilla, Bogota, Caracas, Guayaquil, Lima, Maracaibo, and Miami.
Unable to sustain operations, the company is reorganized late in the year and begins flying scheduled passenger and freight services to domestic points on August 1, 1953, including the Costa Rican border town of Changuinola. Late in the year, the U. S. CAB grants the company permission to start passenger flights to Miami.
In the spring of 1954, a DC-6 is leased for six months from TransCaribbean Airways and employed during the summer to inaugurate El Panama service to Florida. In 1955-1956, following the lead of the Honduran discount carrier TAN (Transportes Aereos Nacionales, S. A.), AVISPA undertakes the practice, in conjunction with CEA (Compania Ecuatorianas de Aviacion S. A.), of flying low-fare Sixth Freedom flights from Miami over Panama and on to Lima via Guayaquil. Renamed APA (Aerovias Panama, S. A.) during the fall of the latter year, the carrier purchases a DC-4 in December.
AVISPA (AEROVIAS PILOTAS ASSOCIADOS, S. A.): Colombia (1955-1962). Led by Carlos Amortegui, Juan White, and Jaime Castro, a group of former AVIANCA Colombian Airlines (Aerovias Na-
Cionales de Colombia, S. A.) pilots form AVISPA on February 3, 1955. After purchasing a pair of Douglas DC-3s, the associates open scheduled second level service from Medellin to such destinations as Caucasia, Puerto Berrio, and Chigorodo.
Like other similarly sized and underfinanced new entrants, the company is only able to fly for six years before it is forced into bankruptcy in 1962.
AVISTAR CYPRUS, LTD.: P. O. Box 5532, Nicosia, Cyprus; Phone 357 (2) 459 533; Fax 357 (2) 477 367; Year Founded 1990. Avistar is founded at Nicosia in 1990 to provide ad hoc domestic passenger and cargo charter services. Revenue flights begin with a single Boeing 707-320C.
AVISTO, LTD.: P. O. Box 61, Eichweg 3, Oberglatt, CH-8184, Switzerland; Phone 41 (1) 850-5757; Fax 41 (1) 850-5758; Code AK8; Year Founded 1990. Avisto is established at Oberglatt in 1990 to provide domestic Swiss commuter passenger and cargo services, both scheduled and charter. Frank Fassbind is chairman/president, with Tom Gyger as deputy president. Operations begin and continue with a fleet made up of 1 each Fokker F.27-200 and Shorts 360.
Flights continue in 1991-1999, during which years the Friendship is replaced with 1 F.28-4000 Fellowship.
Having been leased to the Sirte Oil Company in Libya some years earlier, the company’s Shorts 360-300 has continued to transport workers between headquarters and various oil fields. En route from Tripoli to an energy area landing strip near Marsa el-Brega on January 13, 2000, the aircraft, with 3 crew and 41 passengers, loses both engines and ditches 3 miles off the coast. A total of 22 passengers are killed.
AVITAT: Westmoreland County Airport, 200 Pleasant Unity Rd., Suite 109, Latrobe, Pennsylvania 15650, United States; Phone (412) 539-4533; Fax (412) 539-5501; Year Founded 1967. Aviat is the charter arm of the FBO Vee Neal Aviation, originally established at Latrobe in 1967. During the next 30 years, a variety of executive, small group, and other public nonscheduled charters are performed throughout the Eastern U. S. In 2000, the company flies 2 British Aerospace BAe Jetstream 31s.
AVJET CORPORATION: 4531 Empire Ave., Hangar 3, Bur-bank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport, Burbank, California 91505, United States; Phone (818) 841-6190; Fax (818) 841-6209; Year Founded 1995. AvJet Corporation is set up at Burbank in 1995 to serve as an FBO and charter operation, as well as an aircraft management, sales, and leasing concern. Within five years, the company operates 6 Grumman G-1159 Gulfsteams, 1 Canadair 601 Challenger, 1 Cessna 560 Citation V, and 2 IAI Westwinds.
AVL ARKHANGELSKIE VOZDUSHNYE lINIE: Arkhangelsk Airport, Arkhangelsk, 163053, Russia; Phone 7 (81822) 68316; Fax 7 (81822) 31425; Code AUL; Year Founded 1995. Founded just the year before, Arkhangelsk Airlines is renamed in 1995. Viktor S. Andropov is general director and he provides regional and domestic charters with a fleet that comprises 12 Antonov An-24s, 14 An-26s, 14 Tupolev Tu-134s, and 5 Tu-154B/Ms.
It is understood that flights continue without change during the remainder of the decade; exact information is, however, unavailable.
World History
