AIDA (Agencia Interamericana de Aviacion / Interamerican Association of Aviation)

  5 October 1946 to 15 March 1960

  Colombia

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TYPE: Airline

IATA/ICAO CODES: Nil

HEADQUARTERS: Bogota, Colombia

OTHER NAMES: AIDA (Agencia Interamericana de Aviacion) (1946-1947), AIDA (Interamerican Association of Aviation) (1947-1960)

SUBSEQUENT NAME: Nil

AIDA was founded on 5 October 1946 in Bogota. It started as a travel agency promoting charter flights to New York via Barranquilla, Kingston and Miami, FL by Western World Airways Inc. These flights were cheaper than the rates offered by Pan American Airways, and Avianca was barely starting scheduled services to the USA, therefore they were very successful.

In 1947, the company decided to get involved in the transport of air mail. As Avianca wanted to keep a monopoly on this lucrative business, AIDA decided to focus on reaching the most remote towns of the Eastern Plains and the Amazon, that did not have runways or landing fields. In order to achieve this, they purchased a couple PBY Catalina amphibians capable of landing on the rivers. A Douglas DC-3 later joined the fleet, with the objective of opening a trans-amazonian route to Peru and Chile, extending as far as Argentina, but this never came to fruition. Instead, the airplane was used to carry out scheduled passenger and cargo flights between Barranquilla and Miami with an intermediate stop in Kingston, offering lower fares than Avianca.

A second DC-3 was purchased in 1948 to increase capacity to Leticia, in the far south of the Amazon Department. However the first DC-3 was destroyed in an accident in March, killing 15.

By the early 1950's, AIDA was starting to lose money. Charter flights were offered to the isolated island of San Andres from 1954, with government support. In December 1956, a Catalina crashed between Bogota and Quibdo, killing 14. The second Catalina was destroyed in another accident in March 1960, and the company closed.

1951 to May 1953

AIDA operated at least one Commando for a couple years.

Curtiss R5C-1 Commando: HK-608