SCADTA (LA SOCIEDAD COLOMBO-ALEMANA DE TRANSPORTS AEREOS, S. A. [COLOMBIAN-GERMAN AIR TRANSPORT COMPANY]). Colombia (1919-1940). Capitalized at 100,000 pesos ($100,000), with heaviest investment from Gieseking and Company, SCADTA is registered before Notary Public No. 2 at the northwest Colombian capital of Barranquilla on December 5, 1919. Alberto Tiet-jen is named first chairman, with Ernesto Cortissoz as president. Despite the public relations success of the U. S.-made aircraft demonstrated by American salesman William Knox Martin, orders are placed for Junkers F-13s, at just under $20,000 each.
Late in July 1920, two F-13s arrive at Puerto Colombia on a Dutch ship from Germany, accompanied by Junkers technician Fritz Hammer and aircraft engineer Wilhelm Schnurbusch; they are joined by the carrier’s new chief pilot Hellmuth von Krohn, shortly thereafter. The first survey flight is made by the Colombia on September 12-13 from Barranquilla to Puerto Berrio via Zambrano, El Banco, and El Ciego. Accompanying Hammer and Schnurbusch as the first official passenger is company director Stuart Hoise, who just happens to have business at the flight’s destination.
Meanwhile, SCADTA, which has established a local office, is now allowed to organize its own airmail operation, complete with post offices and stamps (the first of the latter apparently being issued on October 4). A second and larger survey flight is made on October 19-20, Barranquilla to Girardot, a river port in Colombia’s capital city.
The event is of such national importance that President Marco Fidel Suarez charters an entire train, invites his cabinet, plus military and religious VIPs and the press, to travel with him to witness the plane’s arrival. Unhappily, upon landing at Girardot, the F-13 Colombia, a floatplane, founders (one dead). The second F-13, Bogota, now arrives at Girardot, flying on up the Magdalene River to Bogota on November 14.
Early in 1921, Austrian industralist Dr. Peter Paul von Bauer invests in SCADTA, orders additional F-13s, and establishes agencies for the airline in New York, Paris, Hamburg, and Berlin. As a result of von Bauer’s efforts, the fleet is increased to six F-13s, allowing scheduled Barranquilla to Girardot service to commence on September 19, with an irregular extension to Neiva. At year’s end, flights are also inaugurated Barranquilla to Cartagena and Santa Maria. Trips that had previously required 10 days now take only 10 hours.
Von Bauer arrives at Colombia in early 1922, together with engineer Hermann Knehl, who will soon be asked to lead the airline’s new aerial photography and survey division, Secion Cientifica (Scientific Section). On July 28, von Bauer purchases the Gieseking shares, becoming majority owner.
In August, an F-13 helps to establish the delineation of a portion of the Colombia and Venezuela frontier near Cucuta. In September, Pedro Nel Ospina, the new president of Colombia, makes a roundtrip flight from Giradot to Puerto Berrio in a company Junkers, probably the first head of state to fly with a commercial airline. On December 5, the impressed Colombian Council of Ministers authorizes a mail contract, which is confirmed by the president on December 16. Simultaneously, SCADTA issues its first official timetable and schedule.
To assist the Colombian government in avoiding a run on the State Bank and other national banks in several cities, F-13s, on July 19-20, 1923, fly an emergency 3.1-million pesos ($3.1 million weighing a ton and a half) from Medellin to Bogota. Although one more F-13 is delivered during the year, the original Colombia, repaired after its previous tragedy, is destroyed in a crash (one dead).
On June 8, 1924, the F-13 Tolima is lost during a Barranquilla air show; six are killed, including Chief Pilot Hellmuth von Krohn and the company’s first president, Ernesto Cortissoz. On May 4, a German consortium led by Fritrz Hammer and Deutscher Aero Lloyd, A. G. forms the Condor Syndikat at Berlin to study the viability of further South American operations, including the establishment of an “interameri-cana” network between Colombia, Central America, and the U. S. Given the opportunity, SCADTA chief von Bauer subscribes 10% of Condor’s initial $200,000 capitalization.
The first international survey flight is flown from Barranquilla to Cu-ra9ao and La Guaua on April 8, 1925, followed by a flight from Barranquilla to Maricaibo on July 27. Two F-13s are delivered during the summer and are christened Cucuta and Bucaramanga.
Meanwhile, two CMASA-built Dornier Wals, Atlantico and Pacifico, are leased from the Condor Syndikat and depart Barranquilla on August 18 on a route proving and goodwill flight, via Central America and Cuba to the U. S. After calls at Cartagena, Cristobal, Puerto Limon, San Jose del Norte, Managua, Amapala, La Libertad, San Jose, Lake Amatitlan, Puerto Barrios, Belize City, and Cozumel, the flying boats arrive at Havana on September 19.
U. S. expedition leader von Bauer spends the first months of 1926 negotiating with Americans interested in financing intra-American service and with the U. S. government over traffic rights. The Pacifico is allowed to make a trial flight from Havana to Palm Beach via Miami. The negotiations fail, due largely to American fears of “Germans flying over the Panama Canal,” and the Pacifico returns to Cuba.
The Atlantico is crated up and returned to Germany while the Pacifico is shipped to Cura9ao. Still in hopes of beginning his intercontinental airline, von Bauer orders eight Sikorsky S-38 flying boats. Later in the year, it crashes en route from Cura9ao to Barranquilla, thus defeating von Bauer’s plan to open a Cura9ao to Panama service. On September 3, the F-13 Caldas crashes in fog at La Victoria (one dead).
Two more F-13s are delivered during 1927 along with two Dornier Merkurs. While on a trial flight at Barranquilla on June 5, the F-13 Cauca is destroyed in a crash; the F-13 Bogota is also lost in a summer accident. On October 23, Herbert Bay, flying the F-13 Boyaca, makes a survey flight from Barranquilla to Buenaventura. Von Bauer again seeks U. S. permission for a Canal Zone route and is once more refused.
Barranquilla to Guayaquil, Ecuador, F-13 mail flights begin on June 10, 1928; a month later on July 12, Herbert Bay is the first to pilot a commercial revenue flight across the equator. The F-13 Boyaca launches the carrier’s first international passenger service on the route beginning on July 30. On October 22, Herbert Bay flies the F-13 Atlantico on a proving mission to Paita, Peru. During the year, the fleet is strengthened through the addition of five F-13s, the Junkers W.33 Cundimarca, and the Dornier Wal Colombia No. 2.
The F-13 Boyaca makes a second survey flight to Paita on January 22, 1929. On April 1, the Guayaquil and Buenaventura route is extended to Panama City and Cristobal by the recently received Junkers W.33 Cundimarca, U. S. permission for the service having finally been achieved.
The fleet is enhanced through the addition of four Junkers W.34s, four F-13s, five de Havilland DH 60 Gipsy Moths, and the first of six Sikorsky S-38Bs, the latter outfitted in the company’s new silver and blue livery with a large South American Condor tail logo. The F-13s Chuco and Valle, placed in service the previous year, are lost in crashes.
Following the October 29 U. S. stock market crash, SCADTA encounters severe financial difficulties. At this point, Paul von Bauer and Pan American Airways (PAA) President Juan Trippe conclude a confidential “gentleman’s agreement” leading to a buyout by the rapidly expanding American carrier.
In exchange for a covert 80% of the airline’s stock, Trippe promises von Bauer new airmail contracts, full access to U. S. markets, and additional aircraft. Von Bauer promises to make certain that Colombia drops
Its long-standing objection to Pan American-Grace Airways (Pana-
Gra) service through Colombia.
On February 15, 1930, by a formal secret contract that is taken to New York and locked in Juan Trippe’s safe, Pan American Airways (PAA) begins the takeover of SCADTA, which now withdraws from international service to concentrate solely on Colombian domestic operations. Von Bauer resigns as president and is replaced by a Colombian appointee; Colombians, on the surface, remain in charge of the airline. The same day, the new DH-60 Garza crashes at Cali.
The DH-60 Gaviota is lost during the summer and the F-13 Santran-der is destroyed by fire while refueling at El Banco on September 2. Service to Guayaquil, which for the past two years has been operated as “Servicio Bolivariano de Transportes Aereos,” is withdrawn on December 17; however, F-13 landplane service is simultaneously launched Flandes to Bogota and Ibague.
The Pan American Airways (PAA) acquisition is completed on April 10, 1931, at which point the U. S. carrier owns 84.4% controlling interest. Service to Panama City and Cristobal is withdrawn in June and during the year, the DH-60 Halieto is lost in a crash. A joint Bogota to New York airmail service is begun with Juan Trippe’s line on July 16; SCADTA flies the Colombian sector of this historic premier of the first permanent North America to South America return airmail and cargo route. Two Fokker Model 8 Super Universals are added to the fleet late in the year.
Uraba, Medellin and Central Airways, S. A. is acquired by Pan American Airways (PAA) in April 1932 for its Medellin connection to Panama, thereby keeping the “German” SCADTA away from the Canal Zone. SCADTA’s Barranquilla-Medellin service via Barrancabermeja, Puerto Berrio, begins on June 27.
A link is made a few weeks later from Medellin to Buenaventura via Cali. On September 2, with an F-13 and a W.34 piloted by Herbert Bay, SCADTA begins nine months of logistics assistance to the government, which is attempting to assert its sovereignty in Caqueta and Putumaya provinces against Peruvian encroachments.
During the year, the Colombian government takes over the Dornier Wal Colombia No. 2. The S-38B Ernesto Cortissoz crashes during the summer and the Super Universal Medellin is lost at La Mesa on December 15. The fleet is, however, strengthened by the arrival of five Ford 5-ATs, which President von Bauer believes will be necessary to change company focus to the remainder of the country from the Magdalena River Valley. They are the first of their type imported into South America.
The government emergency requiring pilot Bay’s assistance ends in July 1933. SCADTA’s aircraft thus become the first to serve in any kind of wartime combat capacity in the Western Hemisphere. The effort is so successful that Colombian officers involved return to Bogota and convince the government to form an air force.
The company now begins building a network of private airports at the larger cities of Cali, Medellin, and Bogota and establishing weather and radio services. The F-13 Garcia Rovira is lost in a summer crash.
On March 10, 1934, the S-38B von Krohn crashes in Chuco Province; one man, Newton Marshall, survives and eventually escapes the jungle in an adventure worthy of Hollywood’s Indiana Jones. Although the second Fokker Super Universal, Bogota, is also lost in an accident, the fleet is strengthened through the addition of the Sikorsky S-41 Alfonso Lopez and the Clark GA-43J Bolivar. The latter, the only one of its type known to have been operated with floats, is placed in service on the Barran-quilla to Santa Maria route. The first of the upgraded 5-AT series Ford Tri-Motors, 5-AT-1, after six years in private U. S. service, is acquired on May 4. The Ford Tri-Motor 5-AT-111 is delivered on August 4, followed by the brand new 5-AT-112 outfitted with a Club interior, in October.
The former United Air Lines Ford Tri-Motor 5-AT-106 is delivered on April 19, 1935, followed by the ex-UAL5-AT-104 on April 26 and 5-AT-114 on June 5; the last is christened Baranquilla. The most remarkable event of the year is a crash that occurs on June 24; indeed, the incident is one of the two or three most spectacular prewar aviation accidents. The Ford 5-AT piloted by SACO (Servicio Aereo Colom-biano, S. A.) CEO Ernesto Mendoza crashes into the SCADTA 5-AT-112 Manizales piloted by Hans Thomas in a takeoff ground collision at Medellin. Mendoza, the noted Argentine singer Carlos Gardel, and 15 others aboard the 2 planes are killed. The 5-AT-108 arrives at Barran-quilla on August 16, having been ferried down by a Pan American Airways (PAA) crew.
The S-41 Alfonso Lopez crashes at Barranquilla on February 14, 1936. The situation is more cheery in March as the former Transcontinental and Western Air Lines (TwA) Ford Tri-Motor 5-AT-69, operated in New York Harbor with floats the previous year, is delivered from Kansas City. August 6 is, however, particularly tragic as two planes are lost: the F-13 Cordoba at Chuco and the S-38B Guillermo Valencia at an unknown jungle point. On December 6, Pan American Airways (PAA) finances the purchase of the first 3 of 15 former United Air Lines or Western Air Lines Boeing 247Ds that will be forwarded to the SCADTA fleet.
Late in January 1937, the premier Boeing, Belalcazar, opens a Bogota to Arauca route via Villavicencio. During the summer, a nonstop Bar-ranquilla to Bogota service is first offered and flights also begin from Cucuta to Barranquilla. The U. S. State Department, meanwhile having learned of the secret accord, requests that Trippe take measures to disassociate from the “German” carrier. The PAA chief will stall, instead.
Following discussions with Juan Trippe in early 1938, Peter Paul von Bauer is reinstated as SCADTA president, with Hermann Kuehl as general manager. On May 26, the government decrees that the airline’s workforce must be at least 25% Colombian. Meanwhile, on May 13, the F-13 Darien is lost in a crash, followed by the loss of the float-equipped Ford 5-AT Barranquilla. By year’s end, the fleet includes 10 of the 15 B-247Ds; these show a more realistic Condor logo, with the bird emerging from a circle colored like the country’s flag. They serve as fleet flagships and pioneer new routes throughout the nation.
As the result of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s direct intervention, Pan American Airways (PAA) President Trippe is at last forced to confront the issues raised in Washington circles by his secret “German” airline. On June 14, 1939, he withdraws the accord and SCADTA stock from his safe and together with a supply of cash and company associates, flies to Bogota, and, with a bit of “dollar diplomacy,” lines up Colombian government personnel behind his forthcoming purge.
A SCADTA stock meeting is held, a stock vote is taken, and von Bauer and the entire SCADTA directorship is removed. The Ford 5-AT Leticia is destroyed in an accident during the summer. On October 11, a Junkers W-34 crashes near Calamar (five dead); 16 days later, on October 27, an agreement is reached to merge the carrier with competing SACO (Servicio Aereo Colombiano, S. A.).
The SACO merger is ratified by the stockholders on February 23, 1940. Officials of the new prize, Colombians all, are given management training that will later prove useful. Five days later on February 28, the B-247D Quesada is lost in a crash near Bucaramanga (11 dead).
Under continuing U. S. government pressure and with full knowledge of the Colombian government “fixed” by Trippe the previous year, all German employees, about 80 in all, are summarily fired on June 8. They are replaced by Pan American Airways (PAA) employees secretly brought into the country, together with the first of the SACO trainees. On June 14, the carrier’s name is changed to AVIANCA (Aerovias Na-cionales de Colombia, S. A.).
SCANAIR, A. B.: Sweden (1961-1993). Scanair is established on June 30, 1961 as a privately owned Danish charter operation. After four years of independent operation, the carrier is sold to the consortium of airlines forming SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System). The company is reorganized on October 1, 1965 and capital shareholding in the new organization is divided between the companies: three-sevenths to ABA Swedish Airlines, A. B. and two-sevenths each to DDL Danish Air Lines, A. S. and DNL Norwegian Air Lines, A. S. Offices are opened in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.
Employing steadily more sophisticated aircraft from Douglas DC-7Cs to Sud-Est SE-210 Caravelles and beyond, Scanair undertakes inclusive-tour and general passenger group flights and charters in Europe and to the Canary Islands, North Africa, and to North America. Over 30 travel agencies book tours with the carrier.
By 1972, the fleet includes 3 Boeing 727s and 2 DC-8s. Enplane-ments are 726,915.
Despite the oil crisis, bookings climb 1.1% in 1973 to 735,000.
Airline employment in 1974 is 390. Inflation and oil prices do catch up with the carrier this year as passenger boardings decline a significant 17% to 304,439.
Operations continue apace in 1975-1976 and in 1977 enplanements reach 918,577.
Airline employment grows by 14% in 1978 to 505. A new management team is placed in control, headed by George Olsson, managing director, and Henry Engstrom, deputy managing director.
Passenger boardings jump 26.1% to 1,243,000 and a $1.8-million net profit is earned on operating income of $108.2 million.
In 1979-1980, the fleet grows to comprise 3 DC-8-63s and 1 DC-862 leased as needed from SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System). Destinations visited at the close of the decade from the gateways of Copenhagen, Goteborg, Malmo, Oslo, and Stockholm include Africa, Europe, Thailand, and the U. S.
Enplanements in 1981 total 597,718.
The employee population grows by a significant 30.9% in 1982 to 284. Leases are sought of the parent for two Airbus Industrie A300B4-120s and a B-747-200C.
Passenger boardings increase 46% to 1,111,000. The year’s profits are $585,000 (operating) and $3.2 million (net).
The number of workers is dramatically increased in 1983, up 11.3% to 316. The fleet of three DC-8-63s leased from SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System) is increased by the chartering of the two requested Airbus Industrie A300B4-120s.
Customer bookings decline 4% to 1,066,000. Revenues jump 13.4% to 111.5 million while expenses climb only 12.6%. The operating profit of $1.5 million is posted and net gain of $4.3 million is celebrated.
A third A300B4-120 is chartered from SAS in 1984. A Soviet fighter plane intercepts an airliner in Swedish airspace on August 9, leading to a protest to Moscow from the Stockholm government.
Although enplanements plunge to 574,410, profits of $647,000 (operating) and $3.5 million (net) are recorded.
Employment grows a full 10% in 1985 to 351 and orders are placed for 3 additional DC-8-63s.
Passenger boardings climb 6.6% to 615,000. Revenues jump 25.1% to $138 million and expenses are $135.6 million. As a result, the operating profit accelerates to $2.4 million and net gain rises to $5.7 million.
The fleet is enhanced in 1986 by the addition of a DC-8-63. In January, two of the three A300B4-120s are withdrawn by parent SAS (Scan-danavian Airlines System) and sold to Conair of Scandanavia, S. A.
Cargo ascends 13% to 18.3 million FTKs and passenger miles enplanements total 1,346,558. Revenues rise by 9.6% to $195.9 million, expenses are up 7.6% to $114.6 million, and the operating profit is $81.3 million.
In 1987, the 450-employee Swedish pleasure carrier obtains 2 additional DC-8-63s as the final A300B4-120 is withdrawn.
Passenger boardings rise 22% to 1,726,356.
Frequencies are maintained without change or statistics in 1988-1989. During the former year, Always, A. B., a company engaged in the group travel business, is organized as a subsidiary at Stockholm.
CEO Henrik Meldahl’s fleet in 1990 includes 5 DC-10-10s, all of which are leased from other airlines. In early July, the company assumes responsibility for its own flight operations, training, and maintenance under an independence program called “Own Wings.”
Another DC-10-10 is acquired in 1991 along with three McDonnell Douglas MD-83s, two of which are leased from the parent. An MD-82 is leased from SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System) in 1992. Airline employment now stands at 1,000 even and enplanements total 1,713,600.
In 1993, Chairman Christer Sandahl and Managing Director Thomas Rosenqvist oversee a workforce of 900. Losing money for some time, the troubled carrier’s parent, SAS Leisure, agrees in September to merge it with Conair of Scandinavia, A. S., owned by Denmark’s Simon Spies Holdings, to form the new airline Premiair A. S.
The merger becomes official on January 1, 1994.
SCANBEE (SCANDINAVIAN BEELINE CHARTER, A. B.): Sweden (1976-1985) . This privately owned Swedish charter operator is registered at Stockholm in 1976. A Convair CV-340 is acquired and employed to inaugurate domestic and regional international turboprop flights beginning in March 1977.
By the early 1980s, the workforce has grown to a total of 12. The CV-340 is replaced with a CV-580 turboprop during 1981.
Unable to generate sufficient traffic to cover growing expenses or acquire more up-to-date equipment, the carrier stops flying in 1985.
World History
