Aviaco

IATA ICAO Call sign AO AYC AVIACO
Founded	18 February 1948 (1948-02-18)
Ceased operations	1 September 1999
Operating bases	Madrid-Barajas Airport
Parent company	Iberia
Headquarters	Madrid, Spain
Key people	Elías Ugartechea Isusi

Aviación y Comercio, S.A., doing business asAviaco, was a Spanish airline headquartered in theEdificio Minister inMadrid.^[1]

Thecarrier was formed byBilbao businessmen as a freight company on 18 February 1948 (1948-02-18).^[2] A group of local bankers provided the necessary funds for the acquisition of sixBristol 170s. Given thatIberia had exploited the most profitable domestic and international routes since the early 1940s, Aviaco restricted its operations to secondary routes. Scheduled passenger services started betweenBilbao andBarcelona andMadrid. The first international route wasAlgiers–Palma–Marseille, whileCanary Islands-based flights were launched shortly afterwards. In 1954, the airline won the contract for operating an airmail service between Madrid and Barcelona. In 1955, the airline's headquarters were transferred from Bilbao to Madrid, and theInstituto Nacional de Industria (INI) took over a majority interest in the company.^[3]: 992

The financial structure of the company was re-organised in 1959, when the capital was halved toESP 50 million, whereas Iberia injected ESP 100 million, becoming the owner of2⁄3 of the shares, with the balance being split between the initial shareholders and INI. The move permitted Aviaco to acquire three second-handConvair 440s fromSabena.^[3]: 993 These were the airline's first pressurized aircraft. By April 1960 (1960-04), the company had 702 employees; a fleet of three Bristol 170s, three Convair 440s, fiveHeron IIs and fiveLanguedocs served a route network that included Barcelona,Brussels,Casablanca,Las Palmas, Madrid,Oran, Palma,Tangier,Santa Cruz de Tenerife andTétouan.^[4] TwoConvair 240s were bought fromVarig in 1962.^[5] In early 1964, the carrier signed a contract withAviation Traders for the conversion of two of itsDC-4s intoCarvairs;^[6] the first converted airframe was delivered in June the same year.^[7]

By 1965, a joint Aviaco-Iberia board was set up to coordinate aviation policies, which ensured that Aviaco and Iberia routes did not compete with each other.

In 1973, Aviaco became the 46th airline worldwide in ordering theMcDonnell Douglas DC-9-30,^[8] when it acquired six aircraft of the type.^[9] In August 1974 (1974-08),^[10] two more DC-9-30s were ordered.^[11] By March 1975 (1975-03), the fleet consisted of fourCaravelle 10Rs, fiveDC-8-50s, six DC-9-30s and sixF-27s, whereas two more DC-9-30s were on order. At this time, the carrier had 764 employees and the route network included Algiers,Alicante, Barcelona, Bilbao,Córdoba,Ibiza,A Coruña, Las Palmas, Madrid,Mahón,Málaga, Oran,Oviedo, Palma,Pamplona,Santander,Santiago de Compostela,San Sebastián,Seville, Tenerife,Valencia andVigo.^[2] In July 1975 (1975-07),^[12] four DC-9-33CFs were ordered;^[13] these four aircraft were handed over to the company within a month, with the first of them entering the fleet in May 1976 (1976-05),^[14] and the last in June.^[15] Valued atUS$40 million, four more DC-9-30s were acquired in 1978.^[16] That year, Aviaco lost almost ESP 453 million.^[17] Another loss, equivalent to£3 million, was recorded for 1979, but these financial results were reverted in 1980, with the airline making a £5.5 million profit.^[18]

In March 1980 (1980-03), the company had more than 1200 employees and it was 90%-owned by INI.^[19] Early in the decade, Aviaco incorporated fiveDC-8-63s that were phased out from Iberia's mainline fleet due to a renewal programme.^[20]Flight International informed in 1983 that the company had an initial order for 20CN-235s,^[21]: 1497 and that the order was boosted to 22 aircraft of the type late that year.^[22] By March 1985 (1985-03), the number of employees had grown to 1,751; the fleet comprised two DC-8-50Fs, 16 DC-9-30s, four DC-9-30Fs and nineFokker F27-600s; the 22 CN-235s were still on order.^[23] During the decade, most of Aviaco shares were acquired by its competitor Iberia. From that time, Aviaco ran the less important domestic routes while Iberia served the international destinations and the most important national routes, such as theshuttle service Madrid-Barcelona. All the Aviaco technical, marketing and financial resources were transferred to Iberia. During this time, Aviaco had a fleet ofDouglas DC-9 planes, which were painted in blue and white livery.

During the 1990s, theAsturias–London Stansted,Valladolid–Paris,Zaragoza–London Stansted and Zaragoza–Paris routes were added to the existing ones radiating from Madrid and servingAlmeria,Badajoz, Barcelona, Bilbao,Fuerteventura,Granada, Ibiza,Jerez de la Frontera, A Coruña,Lanzarote, Las Palmas, Málaga,Mallorca,Menorca,Murcia, Oviedo, Palma, Pamplona,Reus, San Sebastián, Santander,Seville, Tenerife, Valencia, Valladolid, Vigo,Vitoria-Gasteiz and Zaragoza. On March 1994 (1994-03), Aviaco had 1,696 employees and a fleet of eightFokker F-27s, 20McDonnell Douglas DC-9s and 13MD-88s.^[24] Iberia's shareholding in Aviaco was boosted from 33% to 100% in 1998,^[25] when the Spanish flag carrier took control of 67% of the shares that were held by theSEPI.^[26][27] Since then, Iberia plans for Aviaco were to absorb it;^[27] this occurred on 1 September 1999 (1999-09-01).^[28]

During its heyday, Aviaco ("AO") was well known for operating charter flights primarily from Palma, Tenerife and Girona to almost every provincial airport in Europe, providing uplift for all major tour operators, such as Thomson, Enterprise, Cosmos and ILG. In fact, ILG's combined operations (Intasun, Lancaster, Global and Sol) signed an exclusive deal with AO to operate charters from all UK airports not covered by its own Air Europe brand. Aviaco earned itself a bad reputation in the international travel sector; it became known for its old aircraft (DC-9's), mediocre service and delays. However, the airline gained something of a cult status amongst travellers, who ultimately saw their Aviaco flight as part of the holiday experience.

During the mid-late 1980s, Aviaco sub-chartered aircraft from IBERIA to provide seasonal added capacity to its DC-9 fleet, which saw weekly forays of Iberia Boeing 727s, A300s and even Boeing 747-200s operating charter services on Aviaco's behalf into airports across Europe that had otherwise only handled 737 and DC9 sized aircraft up to that point.

Date	Location	Aircraft	Tail number	Aircraft damage	Fatalities	Description	Refs
24 November 1949	Menorca	Bristol 170	EC-ADK	W/O	0	Overshot the runway on landing atMahón Airport.	[29]
4 December 1953	Guadarrama	Bristol 170	EC-AEG	W/O	23/33	Crashed at Guadarrama. The aircraft was operating a domestic scheduled Bilbao–Madrid passenger service.	[30]
29 September 1956	Tenerife	SNCASE Languedoc	EC-AKV	W/O	1	The aircraft that was completing a domestic scheduledMálaga–Tenerife North passenger service, when it crashed on approach toLos Rodeos Airport, killing one person on the ground.	[31]
9 May 1957	Madrid	Bristol 170	EC-ADI	W/O	37/37	While on approach toMadrid-Barajas Airport on a domestic scheduled passenger service fromSantiago de Compostela asFlight 111, the aircraft entered aspin, crashed and caught fire.	[32]
14 April 1958	Barcelona	de Havilland Heron	EC-ANJ	W/O	16/16	The aircraft had departedZaragoza on a scheduled passenger service to Barcelona with 16 people on board. When another aircraft took off from Barcelona as the Heron was approaching, the Heron pilot made a sudden turn and the aircraft stalled and fell into the sea.	[33]
4 December 1958	Guadarrama	SNCASE Languedoc	EC-ANR	W/O	21/21	The aircraft had departedVigo on a scheduled passenger service to Madrid with 21 people on board.Crashed intoSierra de Guadarrama and burst into flames, killing all occupants.Icing was the apparent cause of the accident.	[34][35]
13 August 1973	A Coruña	Sud Aviation Caravelle	EC-BIC	W/O	86	One of the deadliest aircraft crashes in mainland Spain occurred whenFlight 118, a Sud Aviation Caravelle, hiteucalyptus trees on approach to A Coruña Airport due topilot error, crashed to the ground, striking several houses, and then burned out, killing all 85 people on board and one person on the ground.	[36]
7 December 1983	Madrid	DC-9-32	EC-CGS	W/O	93	TheMadrid runway disaster took place atBarajas Airport when an Aviaco Douglas DC-9-32 that was taxiing for departure toSantander entered the active runway at the same time an outbound IberiaBoeing 727-200 was taking off forRome, running along the very same runway the Aviaco aircraft had taxied into. The two aircraft collided in dense fog, killing all 42 occupants of the DC-9 and 51 of the 93 people aboard the Boeing 727.	[37][38]
30 March 1992	Granada	DC-9-32	EC-BYH	W/O	0	Hard landing atGranada Airport. The aircraft was completing a domestic Madrid–Granada passenger service asFlight 231.	[39]
21 March 1994	Vigo	DC-9-32	EC-CLE	W/O	0	One of the wings hitapproach lights on landing atVigo Airport. The aircraft landed some 50 metres (160 ft) short of the runway, causing both main gears to separate and the airframe to slide for almost 600 metres (2,000 ft) before coming to rest. A fire erupted due to a fuel leak. The aircraft was completing a domestic Madrid–Vigo passenger service asFlight 260.	[40]

• History of Iberia (airline)
• Transport in Spain

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