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Aviation History
1958
1958-1- - 0414.PDF
418 FLIGHT ARGENTINE AWAKENING . . . private airlines. The first people to take advantage of this newruling were Transcontinental, today the best-known line in Argentina after AA, Transcontinental, who apparently startedwith inadequate capital, began working a daily service from Buenos Aires to Mendoza and Cordoba, and later thrice daily to Monte-video. They also stated their intention of flying to the U.S.A. with Super-Constellations, and in fact three new Super-Hs are alreadyin the process of being put into operation. Their local equipment comprises three C-46s which were comprehensively reconditionedat the time of going into service. Convair 880s are a "later on" project. At present it must be said that Transcontinental are taking alot of trade away from Aerolineas. Fares are the same (there is only one class of fare in Argentina) and the service given byTranscontinental is superior in several ways. One great con- venience for frequent travellers, for instance, is the fact that theTranscontinental services leave at the same times each day, whereas Aerolineas have more flights, but their timetables are verycomplicated. Furthermore, passenger service is better and more courteous on Transcontinental and the quantity and quality of theeatables (and drinkables), served free of charge, is higher. Furthermore, the three C-46s are in new condition, whereasthe same cannot be said for the Aerolineas' aircraft—especially the DC-3s, which have had a hard and long life. In many casesmaintenance appears to take place right up to the time of take-off, and flights are often delayed owing to the aircraft not being ready.This is hardly calculated to inspire confidence in air travel, although it should be said that Aerolineas' safety record is not bad,in spite of the disastrous Bolivar crash in November. The lead given by Transcontinental was quickly followed byALA (Aerovias del Litoral Argentino), who filled a long-time need by operating cheap and frequent services to Rosario, second cityof the country (650,000 population) and located on the banks of the River Parana, about 150 miles away by air from Buenos Aires.Aerolineas had never bothered to exploit the possibilities of Buenos Aires-Rosario passenger services, using it only as a flying-boatstop-over on their up-river services inherited from the old ALFA concern. For these services ALA utilized small Aero Commanders andmade a number of back-and-forth commutation services. How- ever, the original company ran into some financial trouble andwere re-formed by another group, who have started operations again only recently, operating four flights daily between BuenosAires and Rosario, using reconditioned DC-3s, and have extended An AA Convair 240 and DC-3 in~the maintenance hangar at Ezeiza. their services to other points northwest of Buenos Aires. ALAhave further taken over Transatlantica, a firm who had planned to fly DC-4s initially, and later DC-6s, to Miami; on the "Sixes"going into service, the "Fours" were to be relegated to cargo ser- vice. This firm's plans are indefinite at present.The only other airline operating at present is Austral (Cia Argen- tina de Transportes Aereos), who are flying "Super 46s" in pas-senger and cargo services down south, on the routes flown years ago by Aeropostale. They have five weekly flights to Bahia Blanca,Trelew, Comodoro Rivadavia, Rio Gallegos and Rio Grande, the latter in Tierra del Fuego. They also fly twice monthly toMiami, operating a freight-only service. Their aircraft start out at midnight from Buenos Aires and are back late the next night.Now we come to the firms who are planning to start operations soon. In the international field we have Aerotransportes INI, justrecently authorized to operate five frequencies per week between Buenos Aires and Miami with DC-4Es. They will also work theBuenos Aires to Santiago de Chile route once daily and their future plans contemplate the eventual acquisition of two or threemedium-range turboprop Lockheed Electras. INI are non-I.A.T.A. and should offer flights to the States at reduced fares, as a numberof companies in South America are doing, particularly LAN Chile and TAN-APSA, the Peruvian combine, while LANICA havealso started combination services. PLAS (Primeras Lineas Aereas Santafesinas) are a small firmwho will shortly begin operating from Santa Fe to Buenos Aires (250 miles approx.) and will later on cover various points withinthe Province of Santa Fe. Their equipment comprises two 10-A Lockheed Electras, shortly to be flown down from the U.S.A.,and they plan to acquire two more if things go well. PLAS capital is entirely Argentine, made up among Santa F6 businessmen. Lineas Aereas de Cuyo have been granted a 15-year concessionto work services from Mendoza, at the foot of the Andes, to Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata, Bariloche, Cordoba, etc., and "over the hills"to Santiago de Chile. They will run six weekly services between Buenos Aires and Mendoza with Convair 340s and their shorterhauls will be effected with D.H. Herons; all these aircraft have been reconditioned "to zero hours condition" as the local expres-sion has it. They plan to offer special touring services in connec- tion with the main agencies in all the large cities.That more or less covers the companies operating or due to start flying soon. A rather "dark horse" is Atlantida, a firm based inMar de Plata, who at the last Air Ministry "public audition" applied for a remarkable mileage of air routes, although theircapital availabilities do not appear to be in line with their pro- jects. One of the plans they had in mind, I heard, was to operatea shuttle service between Buenos Aires and Montevideo (some 120 miles or less) with Caravelles, flying with the least possiblesuperfluous equipment, no stewardess, and requiring seven minutes' flying time between B.A. and Monte. Personally, onerather doubts the practicability of "grasshopping"—or almost so— with large jet aircraft.There are also two or three feeder airlines, the plans of which are, however, not clearly enough defined at the moment.Thus the overall picture is one of an almost phenomenal renais- sance in Argentine commercial aviation; but there are manyshadows lurking behind the externally bright frontispiece. One problem at the back of everybody's mind is: what will theGovernment do? The previous "caretaker" government of General Aramburu was clearly pro-private airlines; in fact, at onetime it had been rumoured that they wished to dissolve Aerolineas Argentinas and leave private operators to handle all air traffic.However, this was not substantiated by fact and today Aerolineas have, in fact, increased their corporate strength with the purchaseof the Comets. (There is another small airline known as LADE— Lineas Aereas del Estado—run by the military, and which operatesDC-3s and Vikings all over the country on grasshopper services. The main object of this line is to train pilots for the Air Force.)However, the present Government of Dr. Frondizi was more or less elected on a strongly nationalistic line, although Dr. Frondizihimself appears, since his assumption of power, to have veered markedly in favour of private capital, both Argentine and foreign.It is yet too soon to trace clearly the new administration's air policy and many private operators have adopted a wait-and-see policyas regards starting operations or expanding their present routes. Some of Argentina's airfields are at high altitudes in the mountainous ridge run- ning down the western side of the country. This snow scene is at Bariloche, in the western province of Rio Negro.
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