Oscar Steiner e Companhia

  1947 to late 1950's

  Brazil

TYPE: Meat carrier

IATA/ICAO CODES: -- / ---

HEADQUARTERS: Belem, Brazil

OTHER NAMES: Oscar Steiner e Companhia (until 1949), Frigorina Comandante Pedro Steiner (from 1949)

Oscar Steiner e Companhia was founded by Oscar Steiner, a Belem entrepreneur of Austrian descent. Steiner was a pioneer in the air carriage of beef from the Amazon basin. He built a 1,300 by 60-meter dirt runway next to a major slaughterhouse in Araguacema, in the state of Tocantins, Brazil, and purchased a Commando. Starting on 18 November 1947, the aircraft made up to three weekly round trips to Belem, with Pedro Antunes Steiner, Oscar's son, as a Captain. Steiner built a refrigirated storehouse next to the Ver-o-Peso Market in Belem to preserve the meat, probably the only one of its kind in the entire Amazon basin at the time. Until the end of the 1940's, Steiner held a monopoly on the carriage of meat by air in the area.

On 5 May 1949, Steiner's Commando crashed during a meat flight, while attempting to make a forced landing on Rio Moju in the state of Para. Steiner's son was killed, along with Salomao Solino, the owner of the Araguacema slaughterhouse. Steiner renamed the company after his son, Frigorina Comandante Pedro Steiner. Many other operators subsequently got involved in the air carriage of beef, both to Belem and to other urban centers in the Amazon. Until at least 1965, about 40% of the beef consumed in Belem arrived in the city by air - making it a true luxury good.

Frigorina Comandante Pedro Steiner is known to have operated until the end of the 1950's.

1947* to May 1949*

Steiner operated at least one Commando for the carriage of beef between Araguacema and Belem.

• Curtiss C-46A-5-CK Commando: PP-DKF