SAM (Societa Aerea Mediterranea)

  March 1928 to 1981

  Italy

TYPE: Airline

IATA/ICAO CODES: MQ / ---

HEADQUARTERS: Rome, Italy

FORMER NAME: Nil

SUBSEQUENT NAME: Nil

SAM was founded on 26 March 1928 with the objective of bringing together under a single umbrella all the private airline companies operating in Italy since the beginning of commercial aviation. This policy, designed by the then new undersecretary of the Italian Air Force Italo Balbo, led to the creation of the future Ala Littoria SA, the first Italian state-owned airline. During the first six years, between 1928 and 1934, he dealt with the rationalization of national and colonial airlines, effectively taking over the global management of the short and medium-haul routes opened by small private companies. During that time, SAM operated a fleet of Italian airliners as a subsidiary of Ala Littoria. SAM's operations stopped in 1939 with the beginning of World War II.

On 3 December 1959, the Alitalia flag carrier refounded SAM as a subsidiary with the task of operating charter flights on routes that it did not directly cover. It also flew local cargo and secondary domestic passenger services on behalf of Alitalia. The latter were transferred to Aero Trasporti Italiani in 1964, and SAM focused exclusively on charter operations. SAM ceased operations at the end of 1976 and was put on liquidation on 1981.

January 1962 to July 1968

SAM operated two Commandos in cargo configuration. While these were initially purchased with the intent of conducting freight charters with an 11,000 lbs payload, this lasted only in 1962. After that, they were used in Alitalia colors to carry out scheduled cargo fights. They mainly carried car parts for Fiat & Maserati, and flowers. As they started aging, constant technical problems meant that they had to be occasionally replaced by chartered DC4s on these freight runs. They were eventually replaced in early 1968 by DC6s recently retired from the passenger fleet and converted to freighters. After being stored in Rome, Italy for several months, they were eventually sold the the aircraft sales division of AAXICO.

• Curtiss C-46A-45-CU Commando: I-SILA
• Curtiss C-46A-60-CK Commando: I-SILV