Aero Continente Peru

Aerocontinente Airline codes|N6|ACQ|AeroContinente was a scheduled passenger airline based in Lima, Peru that operated from until 2004.

Company History

AeroContinente had its origins on 25 May 1991 when it began operating flights for Occidental Pretoleum Company. One year later it began scheduled services from Jorge Chávez International Airport (the old airport) in Lima to various destinations within Peru. The aircraft used were a Boeing 737-200 and a Boeing 727-100.

AeroContinente went head to hear into competion with established Peruvian airlines such as Faucett, Americana de Aviación, and AeroPerú, which at the time dominated the domestic market in Peru. But AeroContinente began offering very low airfares, as low as $39.99 on some routes and the fares attracted passengers. By 1997 Faucett and Americana de Aviación were out of business and AeroContinente was the biggest domestic carrier in Peru. By 1998 AeroContinenta had an almost monopoly of internal routes in Perú and operated a varied fleet of Boeing 727, Boeing 737, Fokker F27, Fokker F28 and one Lockheed L-1011 TriStar.

1999 was a year of expansion with the first international route to Panama City, Panama using a Boeing 737-200. Next came Santiago de Chile. AeroContinente expanded into the Chilean domestic marked by forming AeroContinente Chile and flew domestic routes to Arica, Iquique, Antofagasta, Puerto Montt, Balmaceda and Punta Arenas. Those flights were operating with a fleet of five Boeing 737-200.

International services were expanded with the opering of a Lima - Miami route using a leased Boeing 757-200 from Air 2000 on a wet lease. The next international destination was Port-au-Prince in Haiti and a Boeing 767-200 was introduced into the fleet. Other cities served were Buenos Aires, Caracas, Quito, Guayaquil, Bogotá and Santa Cruz. Most of those flights were operated by AeroContinente Chile.

The year 2002 saw expansion to the Dominican Republic and once again, a local AeroContinente Dominicana was formed using a B737-200 and a B767-200. But soon after AeroContinente Dominicana was anexed to AeroContinente Perú and the Lima-Miami route was flown with stops in Panama and Santo Domingo. By the end of 1993 it was announced that services to New York(JFK), Los Angeles(LAX) and Maded (MAD) were to begun.

But 1993 also saw the introduction into the Peruvian market of LanPeru, a subsidiary of the very strong Chilean airline LanChile, which brought a fierce competition into the Peruvian internal market, specially when LanPerú was using brand new Airbus A320 aircraft while AeroContinente was using expensive to operate and old B737-200s and other smaller aircraft.

Also, in 1993 AeroContinente signed a contract to operate the flights for AirD'Haiti between Port-au-Prince and Miami. But the problems in the home market began to create financial difficulties for AeroContinente Perú, specially when the owner was accused of involvement in the international drug traffic and placed on the list of the 10 most wanted by the US Government. That brought about that no US business could do business with AeroContinente. Then, in an effort to keep the airline going, Nuevo ContinenteAirlines was founded by the pilots and employees but that operation did not last long and due to financial problems the airline ceased to exist in October 2004. [ [http://www.aerolineasperuanas.com/aerocontinente/historia.htm] (in Spanish)]

Fleet Details

*3 - Boeing 727-022
*3 - Boeing 727-023
*2 - Boeing 727-035
*2 - Boeing 727-051
*2 - Boeing 737-130
*1 - Boeing 727-264
*2 - Boeing 737-201
*1 - Boeing 737-204
*1 - Boeing 737-205
*3 - Boeing 737-222
*1 - Boeing 737-241
*3 - Boeing 737-247
*1 - Boeing 737-281
*1 - Boeing 767-205ER
*1 - Boeing 767-219ER
*1 - Boeing 767-2Q8ER
*1 - Fairchild Hiller FH-227A
*1 - Fairchild Hiller FH-227F
*3 - Fokker F28-1000 Felowship
*2 - Lockheed L-1011-1 TriStar
*1 - Boeing 757-2G5
*1 - Boeing 757-28A(F)
*1 - Jetstream 31

External links

* [http://rzjets.net/operators/operator.php?opid=33 Fleet and Code Information]
* [http://www.aerolineasperuanas.com/aerocontinente/historia.htm Historical Website (in Spanish)]
* [http://www.aerolineasperuanas.com/aerocontinente/nuestrosaviones.htm Aircraft pictures]

References