AREA Ecuador (Aerovias Ecuatorianas CA)

  1949 to 1969

  Ecuador

TYPE: Airline

IATA/ICAO CODES: -- / ---

HEADQUARTERS: Quito, Ecuador

FORMER NAME: Nil

SUBSEQUENT NAME: Nil

AREA Ecuador resulted from the 1949 merger of ATECA (Aerotransporte Ecuatoriano CA) and Transandina Ecuatoriana, which operated domestic flights. ATECA used two Douglas DC3s, eight Stinson 108s and two Piper Cubs, while Transandina's fleet consisted in a DC3 and a Commando. The resulting company became the largest airline in Ecuador at the time.

AREA was initially led by Captain Luis Arias, and started operations in mid-1951 with a weekly service to Miami, FL with a stopover in Panama using a Boeing 307 Stratoliner. The Ecuadorian government awarded AREA the operation of domestic routes and cabotage permits formerly used by Avianca. It also granted the company a short-term loan of one million dollars to establish a national network, and flights soon began to Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca, Manta, Loka and Esmeraldas using Douglas DC3s. AREA later acquired a Fairchild F27 new from the factory, which later crashed on Mount Atacaso on a scheduled flight between Guayaquil and Quito in 1960, killing all on board. This serious accident shocked the public opinion and the Government suspended the company's AOC.

AREA acquired a Douglas DC4 from Northwest Airlines in 1961 to resume international flights and obtained government authorization to restart operations. It was joined in June 1964 by three Douglas DC7Bs from Continental Airlines to compete with Ecuatoriana de Aviacion. Service to Miami via Bogota and Panama was resumed, and jets joined the fleet in 1966 with the De Havilland Comet IV replacing aging Douglas propliners. AREA secured the rights to serve Madrid, Sapin in October 1967, but the route was never opened.

When oil exploration in Ecuador began to produce results in the east of the country, executives from Texaco and Mobil Oil contacted the general manager of Alaska Airlines Charlie Willis to request the use of the Lockheed L100 Hercules to provide support in the oil field facilities. These planes had been very useful in the oil companies in Alaska and they thought they could also be very useful in Ecuador. Since Alaska Airlines did not have a permit to operate in the country, an agreement was reached with AREA so that under its operational certificate the service would be offered to oil companies with Alaska Airlines aircraft. Two Lockheed L100s eventually arrived in the country. One of them was destroyed on 16 May 1968 after getting bogged down in mud on an improvised runway in Macuma. As a reward to AREA for the use of its certificate to operate the L100s, the general manager of Alaska Airlines gave the company a Convair 990A, which replaced the Comet IV. With this modern jetliner, the company's routes were extended to La Paz, Bolivia, Asuncion, Paraguay and Montevideo, Uruguay.

Unfortunately, the company's finances were far below a sustainable level and despite many efforts, it was decided to end all operations in early 1969.

October 1950 to March 1953

AREA operated a single Commando that crashed in Panama in March 1953.

• Curtiss C-46-CU Commando: HC-SJA