Aviaco

Aviaco (acronym for Aviación y Comercio S.A.) was a Spanish airline founded on February 18, 1948 when a law was enacted that broke the monopoly in the sector. Spanish aeronautical company that until then was held by the Iberia company. It was later nationalized and became dependent on Iberia, until it was finally absorbed by it in 1999.

History

The company was incorporated on February 18, 1948, with headquarters at No. 1 Plaza Venezuela in Bilbao and a share capital of 100 million pesetas. Its first president, Elías Ugartechea Isusi, had had permits to carry out non-scheduled national air services since December 1946, which he transferred to the new company. Julio Alegría Caamaño, a pilot and businessman who had several companies linked to the world of aviation apart from AVIACO, such as TAE, ALPA or TAVASA, was also a co-founder of Aviaco.

On May 1, 1948, Aviaco received its first aircraft, three Bristol 170 Freighter Mk 21, with which it began operations from Bilbao to Madrid and Barcelona. In 1949 Aviaco established its base of operations at the Madrid-Barajas Airport, started routes with the Canary Islands, Alicante and Badajoz and also joined IATA.

In 1950 José Pazó Montes was appointed president, 10 Sud-Est SE.161 Languedoc aircraft were added and the routes Madrid-Seville-Jerez, Madrid-Lugo-Santiago de Compostela, Madrid-Alicante-Oran and Barcelona were created -Brussels-Amsterdam. In 1951 he began the routes of the Cantabrian coast, initially covering the Madrid-Lugo-Santiago de Compostela-Bilbao-Zaragoza-Barcelona connection, which would later be divided into several sub-routes, and also created the Bilbao-Bordeaux and Madrid-Vitoria routes.

During the 1950s, Aviaco created routes from Madrid to the newly created airports of Granada, San Sebastián, Asturias and Santander. To cover all this demand for routes, it added to its fleet de Havilland DH.114 Heron, Fokker F-27 and Convair 440 Metropolitan. Aviaco thus became the key to the creation of airlines with the new airports being built in Spain. In 1954, the National Institute of Industry bought half plus one of the company's shares, integrating the following year all the personnel at Montepío de Loreto. In 1959, Aviaco became a subsidiary of Iberia, becoming its director Emilio Gil Cacho.

In 1960, a Sud Aviation Caravelle was operated jointly with Sabena, being the first Spanish airline to fly jets. In 1971, Tomás Maestre Aznar was appointed president of Aviaco, while Joaquín Abril Martorell was appointed managing director. In 1973 the INI acquired 67% of the capital, naming Fernando Liñán president of Aviaco. In 1975 Aviaco had 27 aircraft (6 DC-8, 4 Caravelle, 12 DC-9, and 5 Fokker F-27). In 1976, Manuel Ortiz was named president, replaced on November 7, 1978 by Felipe Cons, who in turn was replaced in 1980 by Lorenzo Olarte, who in turn was replaced in 1982 by Carlos Espinosa de los Monteros.

In the 1980s, Aviaco dedicated itself to carrying out charter flights (which it ceased to carry out since the creation of VIVA Air in 1988) and to carrying out regular national flights to secondary airports and third-level operations with Fokker 27 (especially on the lines islands of the Canary and Balearic Islands), while Iberia served the main national routes and international destinations. Iberia took over all of Aviaco's administrative, commercial and technical services. This was considered the golden age of the company, reaching 3,000 employees.

In May 1990, an Aviaco DC-9 plane with registration EC-CLE had one of the most important accidents in Spain, in a complicated landing at the Vigo airport. The accident is known as the Peinador accident. There were 62 injuries, 3 seriously, and no deaths.

At the end of the 1990s, Iberia carried out a reorganization of its group with the intention of becoming privatized. Aviaco began to jointly operate its flights with Iberia implementing the IB/AO code-share since 1997. After a series of strikes by the workforce in early 1999, and business and union negotiations, Aviaco disappeared as a trademark on 1 September 1999, with all its aircraft being repainted in the colors of Iberia. At the time of its disappearance, the company was directed by Ángel Mullor, had 1,500 employees including 330 pilots, and registered a profit of 3,600 million pesetas in the year from 1998.

Children's Sticker of Aviaco's DC-9

Old Aviaco headquarters

Historical fleet

A McDonnell Douglas DC-9 from Aviaco in March 1997.