Austral Líneas Aéreas

IATA AU[1] ICAO AUT[1] Callsign AUSTRAL[1]
Founded	1957 (as Compañía Austral de Transportes Aéreos)
Commenced operations	January 1958 (1958-01)
Hubs	Aeroparque Jorge Newbery
Frequent-flyer program	Aerolíneas Plus
Airport lounge	VIP Lounge
Alliance	SkyTeam (affiliate member in 2012)
Subsidiaries	Inter Austral (currently defunct)
Fleet size	20
Destinations	22
Parent company	Aerolíneas Argentinas (100%)
Headquarters	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Key people	Mariano Recalde (CEO)[2] Andrés Fabre (COO) Juan Pablo Lafosse (CCO)[3]
Website	www.austral.com.ar

Cielos del Sur S.A., operating as Austral Líneas Aéreas, more commonly known by its shortened name Austral, is a domestic airline of Argentina, the sister company of Aerolíneas Argentinas.^[4][5] It is the second largest domestic scheduled airline in the country, after Aerolíneas Argentinas itself. As a subsidiary of Aerolíneas Argentinas, the company shares its headquarters with that airline, which is located in the Torre Bouchard, San Nicolás, Buenos Aires. Its main base of operations is Aeroparque Jorge Newbery, Buenos Aires.

Austral is currently fully integrated into Aerolíneas Argentinas; however, some differences arise, especially those relying upon the Unions the staff of both companies are affiliated to, which lead to constant conflicts.^[6][7][8]

The airline currently operates an all-Embraer 190 fleet.

History[link]

An Austral MD-83 in one of the former liveries, on the apron at Malvinas Argentinas International Airport. (2004)

An Austral Embraer 190 wearing the new livery is seen here taxiing at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery. (2011)

The origins of the carrier can be traced back to 1957, when Compañía Austral de Transportes Aéreos SACI (CATASACI) was founded, starting scheduled services in January 1958 (1958-01).^[9][10] CATASACI focused its services on southwestern Argentina, but it also operated international flights to Montevideo, Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas.^[10] In 1965, Pan Am acquired a 22% stake in CATASACI in return for supplying the company with DC-3s.^[10] In 1966, CATASACI acquired a 30% holding in Aerotransportes Litoral Argentino (ALA), a Rosario–based company that was founded in 1957 and operated flights within northern Argentina, and the services of both companies were integrated.^[10][11][12] Austral Líneas Aéreas was formally established in June 1971 (1971-06) from the merger of CATASACI and ALA.^[9] In practice, operations of the latter airline were absorbed by CATASACI, which was rebranded as Austral Líneas Aéreas S.A. after merging. Austral inherited both companies' fleet, consisting of turboprops NAMC YS-11 and jetliners BAC One-Eleven.

Austral became a government-owned company in 1980. After poor economic performances, there were two failed attempts to re-privatise Austral in 1981 and 1983. All that time Austral and Aerolíneas Argentinas were competitors on a number of domestic routes. Realizing that such a situation could not persist much longer, the government decided again to privatise Austral. This was much resisted by the Aerolíneas Argentinas' personnel, and more specifically its pilots, who claimed their salaries were lower than those of Austral's counterparts. Aerolíneas Argentinas' pilots union understood the government effort was not to solve their affiliates salary conflict, but to focus on privatising a loss-making carrier as Austral was instead. The consequence of this discrepance was the announcement that Aerolíneas Argentinas flights were to be indefinitely suspended effective 1 July 1986.^[13] The strike affected both Aerolineas Argentinas' domestic and international operations. Argentine as well as foreign carriers were benefited from this strike. Ironically, Austral was included among that carriers, gaining the domestic market share Aerolíneas Argentinas lost.^[14]

Austral became once again a privately-owned firm when it was acquired by the holding company Cielos del Sur S.A. in late 1987. The acquisition generated some controversy on the Argentine aviation sector at that time, as it was raised that the new owner had little or no experience in managing an airline. On April 1988, the carrier became a IATA member. Shortly afterwards, the company faced a major accident during its new private era on 12 June 1988, when a McDonnell Douglas MD-81 hit a tree on a low visibility approach into Posadas and crashed. Apart from the 22 fatalities involved in the accident, it also spread concerns on the aviation sector over the airline's poor rate of occupation on some routes, of just 10.32% for this particular flight.^{[citation needed]}

Cielos del Sur S.A. and Iberia formed a consortium to acquire an 85% stake in Aerolíneas Argentinas in 1990, within the framework of that flag carrier privatisation.^[15][16] Soon afterwards, Cielos del Sur S.A. sold Austral to Iberia. The destiny of both Aerolíneas Argentinas and Austral became aligned thereafter. By July 1998, the company was 10% owned by its erstwhile competitor Aerolíneas Argentinas.^[17]

On 21 July 2008 the Argentine Government took the airline back into state control after acquiring 99.4% of the share capital for an undisclosed price. The remaining 0.6% continues to be owned by the company's employees.^[18] In September 2008, Argentina's Senate approved the nationalization of Aerolíneas Argentinas and its subsidiary Austral Líneas Aéreas on a 46-21 vote in favor of the takeover.^[19]

In June 2010 (2010-06) Aerolíneas Argentinas launched a new paint scheme to revamp the airline's image.^[20] The new livery resembles the colour blue of Argentina's flag and the colour yellow of the sun. As its subsidiary airline, Austral also adopted the new image. Austral's livery actually differs from the Aerolíneas Argentinas' one by a red cheatline only.^[21] In the meantime the airline also announced the incorporation of 20 new Embraer 190 to its fleet, receiving the first two of them in September 2010.

Destinations[link]

The so-called Federal Corridor (Spanish: Corredor Federal), a two-way route linking the cities of Bariloche, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Iguazú, Mendoza and Salta, is commercially run by Aerolíneas Argentinas, yet the route is actually operated using Austral equipment.^[22]

Fleet[link]

Pushback of an Austral Embraer 190 at Martín Miguel de Güemes International Airport, Salta, Argentina. (2011)

Austral Líneas Aéreas underwent a major fleet renewal. In 2009, the company signed a contract with Embraer for the purchase of 20 Embraer 190.^[23][24][25] As of April 2012^[update], the airline's fleet comprises the following equipment, with an average age of 1.1 years:^[26]

As of December 2011^[update], Austral is the seventh worldwide largest operator of the Embraer 190.^[28]

Retired[link]

An Austral BAC One-Eleven taxiing at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in 1993. This livery was used while the carrier was owned by Cielos del Sur S.A., and persisted for some years after the airline was acquired by Iberia.

Austral previously operated the following equipment:^[26]

Accidents and incidents[link]

As of December 2011^[update], Aviation Safety Network records 11 accidents/incidents for Austral Líneas Aéreas, totalling 224 deaths.^[30] The list below includes hull-loss accidents only.

Date	Location	Aircraft	Tail number	Aircraft damage	Fatalities	Description	Refs
01959-01-1616 January 1959	Mar del Plata	C-46 Commando	LV-GED	W/O	&1000000000000005100000051/52	The aircraft was operating a domestic scheduled Buenos Aires–Mar del Plata passenger service as Flight 205. It crashed into the sea 1.2 kilometres (0.75 mi) off the coast after a missed approach to the airport of destination.	[31]
01969-12-1717 December 1969	Buenos Aires	C-46 Commando	LV-GEB	W/O	&100000000000000000000000/2	One of the engines ran out of fuel at climbout after an improper selection of the fuel pump. The pilots managed to land the plane in a nearby sports field. The aircraft was operating a cargo service.	[32]
01973-12-044 December 1973	Bahía Blanca	BAC 1-11 500	LV-JNR	W/O	&100000000000000000000000/74	Experienced a loss of power in an engine immediately after takeoff from Comandante Espora Airport. The pilots made a forced landing using the remaining length of the runway. Arresting cables deployed on it were unable to stop the aircraft, and damaged the fuel tanks as they broke off. Despite sparks ignited the fuel, all occupants managed to escape unharmed from the aircraft.	[33]
01977-11-2121 November 1977	Bariloche	BAC 1-11 400	LV-JGY	W/O	&1000000000000004600000046/79	The airplane was operating a chartered Buenos Aires–San Carlos de Bariloche passenger service as Flight 9, when it suffered pressurization problems during climbout to 35,000 feet (11,000 m). It flew the route despite this, although at a lower flight level. On approach to San Carlos de Bariloche Airport the aircraft collided with the ground, 21 kilometres (13 mi) east of the destination city.	[34]
01981-05-077 May 1981	Buenos Aires	BAC 1-11 500	LV-LOX	W/O	&1000000000000003100000031/31[note 1]	The aircraft was operating a scheduled domestic Tucumán–Buenos Aires passenger service as Flight 901. Crashed into the Río de la Plata amid stormy weather while on approach to Aeroparque Jorge Newbery, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) east-southeast of the airfield.	[35][36]
01988-06-1212 June 1988	Posadas	MD-81	N1003G	W/O	&1000000000000002200000022/22	Crashed on final approach to Posadas Airport after hitting trees in low visibility. Was operating a scheduled Resistencia–Posadas service as Flight 46.	[37][38]
01997-10-1010 October 1997	Nuevo Berlín	DC-9-32	LV-WEG	W/O	&1000000000000007400000074/74	Crashed while en route from Posadas to Buenos Aires operating Flight 2553 after entering a storm. The likely cause of the accident was the icing of the pitot tubes. It remains the deadliest one experienced by the carrier all through its history.	[39][40]

See also[link]

	Argentina portal
	Companies portal
	Aviation portal

• Aerolíneas Argentinas accidents and incidents
• List of BAC One-Eleven operators
• List of Embraer 190 operators
• List of NAMC YS-11 operators
• Transport in Argentina

Footnotes[link]

Notes[link]

1. ^ A discrepancy exists regarding the death toll, as it was claimed it rose to 30,^[35] or to 31.^[36]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Austral Líneas Aéreas

• Austral Líneas Aéreas
• Aerolíneas Argentinas
• (Spanish) Unión de Aviadores de Líneas Aéreas (UALA)

v t e Airlines of Argentina Aero VIP (Argentina) Aerochaco Aerolíneas Argentinas Andes Líneas Aéreas Austral Líneas Aéreas Baires Fly LADE LAN Argentina Líneas Aéreas Federales Servicios de Transportes Aéreos Fueguinos Silver Sky Airlines Sol Líneas Aéreas