Ecuatoriana de Aviación

Infobox Airline
airline=Ecuatoriana de Aviacion

logo_size=150
fleet_size=
destinations=26
IATA=EU
ICAO=EEA
callsign=Ecuatoriana
parent=
founded=1957
headquarters=Quito, Ecuador
key_people=
hubs=Mariscal Sucre International Airport
focus_cities=Simón Bolívar International Airport
frequent flyer=Lider Club
lounge=
alliance=
website=

Ecuatoriana de Aviación, also commonly known simply as Ecuatoriana, was the national flag carrier airline of Ecuador. It is now defunct.

History

Compañia Ecuatoriana de Aviación (CEA), en Ecuadorian Company of Aviation began to operate in 1957 after a group of American and several Ecuadorian investors decided to set up the airline. At first, fifty percent of the airline was owned by Americans. Serving a relatively small country, the airline had a varied fleet that consisted of Curtiss C-46, Douglas DC-4, Douglas DC-6 and one Junkers K16 aircraft. The Junkers airplane was a rarity, as Junkers airliners were already considered to be classics at the time.

Ecuatoriana began serving domestic as well as international destinations immediately after it started flying. International routes proved to be rather long trips: there were jets already in operation when Ecuatoriana began flying (that is, before the Boeing 707 made its first flight), but these were predominantly used by European airlines, and Ecuatoriana's equipment's technology made it a requirement for Ecuatoriana's first international route, from Quito to Miami, to include a stopover in Panama City, Panama. Likewise, routes from Quito and Guayaquil to Santiago included stopovers in Lima, Peru. The airline's livery featured a tailfin logo of alternating blue and white diagonal stripes.

American investors pulled out of the company during the early 1970s, prompting the creation of a new company, Empresa Estatal Ecuatoriana de Aviación. This new, state-owned company took over the routes and aircraft of CEA, and became Ecuador's national carrier. By this time, the airline had modernized its fleet to include jets like the Boeing 707, and a new, colorful "rainbow" livery attracted airplane spotters at new destinations such as New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and Buenos Aires' Ezeiza International Airport. Some of Ecuatoriana's aircraft became "flying canvases" for abstract artwork. These distinctively-painted aircraft were seen as a response to Braniff's Alexander Calder-painted aircraft because, during the late 70s and early 80s, Braniff was Ecuatoriana's main competitor on many routes, including Miami-Quito/Guayaquil.

The 707s came from the Ecuadorian Air Force, which was in charge of operating the airline. It was common in South America (and it still is, to some degree) that national airlines were operated by the nation's Air Force department. To reinforce its fleet, Ecuatoriana bought a Douglas DC-10 from Swissair, and it also opened non-stop routes to Canada. For Ecuatoriana de Aviación, having jet equipment also meant that the old, long flights with stopovers were not necessary anymore, and non-stop routes were opened all over South America and to other North American cities.

Ecuatoriana also opened flights to such other destinations as Mexico City and Madrid, Spain. The Quito and Guayaquil to Madrid routes in particular proved extremely competitive, as Iberia was also proven to be a popular airline among travelers that fly those two routes.

During the 1980s, Ecuatoriana de Aviación began to make business with the European Airbus consortium, buying their Airbus A310 jetliners. Ecuatoriana debuted a pair of Airbus A-310s in the early 1990s.

Affected by the general economic crisis in South America during the 1990s, Ecuatoriana was met with deep financial problems. This was met with surprise by many airline experts and enthusiasts, as the airline was generally thought to be in good financial condition because Ecuatoriana's management usually kept quiet about the company's finances. But, in reality, the airline stopped flying in 1993, as some of their leased airplanes, including the A-310s, were taken back by the leasing companies since Ecuatoriana was not able to meet the lease payment requirements. Rumors that government officials flew their family members for free on Ecuatoriana flights hurt the airline's reputation. During the late 80s, Ecuatoriana had also developed a reputation as being an unreliable airline; lengthy flight delays and cancellations were commonplace. Faced with these problems, as well as competition from other carriers such as privately owned Ecuadorian carrier SAETA, American Airlines (which had assumed Eastern Air Lines' Latin America routes in 1990}, and Continental Airlines, which began serving Ecuador from its Houston hub in 1991, Ecuatoriana ceased operations.

Brazilian airline VASP soon came to save the airline, buying over 50% of it in 1995, and letting the Ecuadorian government retain the other 50%. [ [http://www.hoy.com.ec/Suplemen/blanco84/byn.htm Investigacion-Blanco Y Negro- Dos ] ] Ecuatoriana received some Boeing 727s, which were repainted in Miami and at Tucson International Airport in Tucson, Arizona, and, by 1996, short domestic and international services were re-started, with a livery that resembled that of VASP's. A single DC-10, also borrowed from VASP, allowed the airline to re-introduce services to Madrid's Barajas International Airport.

By 2000, Ecuatoriana was caught up in an overall collapse of Ecuador's economy and once again found itself in financial trouble, and VASP decided to sell its part of the airline to Lan Chile. Lan Chile, now a giant among Latin American airlines, owned fifty percent of the airline, wet-leasing two Boeing 767's to the company, but in 2004 they sold their part to Lloyd Aereo Boliviano. By early 2005 LAN had taken over their routes and fleet.

Destinations

The airline provided flights to:

;Europe
*Spain
**Madrid (Madrid Barajas International Airport)

;North America
*Canada
**Montreal (Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport)
**Toronto (Toronto Pearson International Airport)
*Mexico
**Mexico City (Mexico City International Airport)
*United States
**Chicago (O'Hare International Airport)
**Los Angeles (Los Angeles International Airport)
**Miami (Miami International Airport)
**New York City (John F. Kennedy International Airport)
**San Francisco (San Francisco International Airport)
**Washington D.C. (Washington Dulles International Airport)

;The Caribbean
*The Bahamas
**Nassau (Nassau International Airport)

;Central America
*Costa Rica
**San José (Juan Santamaría International Airport)
*Panama
**Panama City (Tocumen International Airport)

;South America
*Argentina
**Buenos Aires (Ministro Pistarini International Airport)
*Bolivia
**La Paz (El Alto International Airport)
*Brazil
**Rio de Janeiro (Galeão International Airport)
**São Paulo (Guarulhos International Airport)
*Chile
**Santiago (Comodoro Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport)
*Colombia
**Bogotá (El Dorado International Airport)
**Cali (Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport )
*Ecuador
**Guayaquil
***(Jose Joaquin de Olmedo International Airport)
**Quito
***(Mariscal Sucre International Airport) Hub
*Paraguay
**Asuncion (Silvio Pettirossi International Airport)
*Peru
**Lima (Jorge Chavez International Airport)
*Uruguay
**Montevideo (Carrasco International Airport)
*Venezuela
**Caracas (Simón Bolívar International Airport)

Historical Fleets

*McDonnell Douglas DC-10
*Boeing 727
*Airbus A310
*Boeing 720
*Boeing 707

References

External links

* [http://airlines.afriqonline.com/airlines/224.htm About Ecuatoriana] - more information and pictures about Ecuatoriana's history
* [http://ssdc.ucsd.edu/news/claea/h95/claea.19950824.html#a3 Chronicle of Latin American Affairs] - chronicles the sale of Ecuatoriana by the government to VASP

Timetable images note

The images of the Ecuatoriana de Aviacion timetables are used with permission and as courtesy of [http://www.timetableimages.com/index.htm Bjorn Larsson and David Zekria, and are part of their personal collections] .