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Aerolíneas Argentinas is Argentina's largest domestic and international airline. It controls around 80% of Argentina's domestic traffic and 40% of international flights from Ministro Pistarini International Airport, which is located in Ezeiza and serves Buenos Aires. The new expansion plan in the year 2004 includes the creation of subsidiaries in Chile, Uruguay, and Bolivia, as well as a hub at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which will allow the airline to become one of the biggest groups in Latin America.
Code Data
- IATA Code: AR
- ICAO Code: ARG
- Callsign: Argentina
History
The company's history began in the year 1929, when an airline company named Aeroposta started operations. The Argentine government, recognizing Argentina's vast geographic size and the need for faster communications between people living in the countryside and those living in larger cities, established an airline company to carry both people and mail. The first two destinations served were Mendoza and Posadas. The Frenchmen Jean Mermoz and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, later legends in Argentina, were among the first pilots used.
 Aerolíneas Argentinas A340-200. By 1930, two more airlines, LASO and LANE, began flights and the number of cities served by air routes in Argentina tripled. In 1945, these two airlines joined, becoming LADE (Líneas Aéreas del Estado, which means "Airlines of the State"). This was well timed, since World War II was entering its final stages and commercial aviation was about to start a stage of explosive growth.
In 1946 the first Douglas DC-3s arrived in Argentina, and Argentina's first intercontinental airline, FAMA, was created. This represented a big leap in Argentine commercial aviation since this was the first international airline in the country.
In 1949, all these airlines decided to join forces under one name: Aerolíneas Argentinas.
Two men important to the growth of the airline were Dirk Wessel Van Layden and Alfonso Aliaga García. They were visionaries, and by this time, Argentina still had no acceptable airport facilities. Van Layden had been a pilot with the French airline Aeropostale (not to be confused with Aeroposta), and he was eager to help get the best pilot standards.
The DC-3 proved to be an invaluable asset for Aerolíneas Argentinas, just as it did for a host of other airlines worldwide. It enabled them to fly to domestic destinations that had, until then, been unreachable and to keep flying FAMA's international routes. Soon afterwards, Douglas DC-4s joined the fleet and services were inaugurated to Santiago, Lima, Santa Cruz, and São Paulo.
The 1950s had arrived when the DC-6 arrived, allowing Aerolíneas Argentinas to fly at night for the first time. Thanks to this plane, the name of Aerolíneas Argentinas was seen at terminals in New York's Idlewild airport, as well as Havana, Lisbon, Dakar, and Rio De Janeiro.
At the end of that decade, the Comet IV jet had begun commercial jet services worldwide, and Aerolíneas once again wanted to set the pace among South America's air companies. Airline President Juan Jose Guiraldes persuaded Argentina's President Arturo Frondizi to buy six of the new planes, on the understanding that Aerolíneas would pay for the planes later. And so, on March 2, 1959, 'Tres Marías', which became the first jet airplane flown by Aerolíneas, landed at Ezeiza's Ministro Pistarini International Airport.
With these jets, Aerolíneas Argentinas kept a steady growth during the 1960s, opening flights to London, Paris, Rome, and Madrid.
The 1970s saw the arrival of the Boeing 747s, 737s and 727s, and a stronger marketing strategy. Aerolíneas Argentinas was featured on many Jorge Porcel movies at that time, and the airline started licensing toy companies to produce models of their aircraft, a practice they maintain today. In 1980, Aerolíneas Argentinas became the first airline to operate a trans-oceanic South Pacific flight, from Buenos Aires to Auckland, New Zealand, and Sydney, Australia, using Boeing 747s. The route remains in operation.
At the beginning of the 1990s the airline was sold by the Argentine government to the Spanish state-owned company Iberia.They added the MD-88 to the fleet to complement the larger Boeing equipment and improve domestic services.The airline was merged with Argentina's domestic airline Austral. Few further changes were seen and by the late 1990s the airline was near bankruptcy. The Spanish government decided to sell its control to American Airlines. In that year (1999) the airline received the latest in jet technology, the Airbus A340, which enabled Aerolíneas Argentinas to start non-stop flights between Buenos Aires and Los Angeles.
Because of the economic crisis in Argentina in 2002, Aerolíneas Argentinas was forced to close down all international services for a few days. However, the airline came back almost immediately.
Fleet
Today Aerolíneas Argentinas has a fleet of 54 planes: six B747-200, one 747-400, four airbus A340, one airbus A310-300, ten MD80 and 32 B737, serving 34 domestic destinations and 20 cities around the world.
Other facts of interest
External links
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