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| Founded | May 1957 (as Compañía Ecuatoriana de Aviación) | |||
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| Commenced operations | August 1957 | |||
| Ceased operations | 2006 | |||
| Hubs | Mariscal Sucre International Airport | |||
| Focus cities | Simón Bolívar International Airport | |||
| Destinations | 30 | |||
| Parent company | VASP (50.1%) | |||
| Headquarters | Quito, Ecuador | |||
Empresa Ecuatoriana de Aviación, more commonly known as simply Ecuatoriana, was the national airline of Ecuador. The carrier had an operational hiatus in September 1993,[1] but was reactivated in August 1995, resuming operations on 23 June 1996, after VASP became the controlling shareholder. The airline folded definitely in 2006.
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Compañia Ecuatoriana de Aviación (CEA) (English: Ecuadorian Aviation Company) was established in May 1957,[2] after a group of American and several Ecuadorian investors decided to set up the airline. At first, 50% of the airline was owned by Americans. Operations started in August 1957.[2] Serving a relatively small country, the airline had a varied fleet that consisted of Curtiss C-46, Douglas DC-4, Douglas DC-6 and one Junkers K 16 aircraft. The Junkers airplane was a rarity, as Junkers airliners were already considered to be classics at the time.
Ecuatoriana began serving domestic as well as international destinations immediately after it started flying. International routes proved to be rather long trips: there were jets already in operation when Ecuatoriana began flying (that is, before the Boeing 707 made its first flight), but these were predominantly used by European airlines, and Ecuatoriana's equipment's technology made it a requirement for Ecuatoriana's first international route, from Quito to Miami, to include a stopover in Panama City. Likewise, routes from Quito and Guayaquil to Santiago de Chile included stopovers in Lima, Peru. The airline's livery featured a tailfin logo of alternating blue and white diagonal stripes.
American investors pulled out of the company during the early 1970s, prompting the creation of a new company. Hence, Empresa Ecuatoriana de Aviación, a state-owned company that took over the routes, liabilities, and assets of CEA, was established in July 1974, becoming the flag carrier of Ecuador.[3][4] By this time, the airline had modernized its fleet to include jets like the Boeing 707, and a new, colorful "rainbow" livery attracted airplane spotters at new destinations such as New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and Buenos Aires' Ezeiza International Airport. Some of Ecuatoriana's aircraft became "flying canvases" for abstract artwork. These distinctively-painted aircraft were seen as a response to Braniff's Alexander Calder-painted aircraft because, during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Braniff was Ecuatoriana's main competitor on many routes, including Miami-Quito/Guayaquil.
In the 1970s, it was a common practice that most South American national airlines were operated by national Air Force departments. Through the Defence Ministry, the Ecuadorian Air Force, in charge of running the airline, bought two refurbished Boeing 707s from Israeli Aircraft Industries in a deal worth US$4,700,000 ($20,932,024 in 2012) million.[5] To reinforce its fleet, Ecuatoriana also acquired a Douglas DC-10 from Swissair, and it opened non-stop routes to Canada as well. For Ecuatoriana de Aviación, having jet equipment also meant that the old, long flights with stopovers were not necessary anymore, and non-stop routes were opened all over South America and to other North American cities.
Ecuatoriana also opened flights to such other destinations as Mexico City and Madrid, Spain. The Quito and Guayaquil to Madrid routes in particular proved extremely competitive, as Iberia proved to be a popular airline among travelers who flew those two routes.
During the 1980s, Ecuatoriana de Aviación began to make business with the European Airbus consortium, buying their Airbus A310 jetliners. Ecuatoriana debuted a pair of Airbus A-310s in the early 1990s.
Affected by the general economic crisis in South America during the 1990s, Ecuatoriana was met with deep financial problems. This was met with surprise by many airline experts and enthusiasts, as the airline was generally thought to be in good financial condition because Ecuatoriana's management usually kept quiet about the company's finances. But, in reality, the airline stopped flying in 1993, as some of their leased airplanes, including the A-310s, were taken back by the leasing companies since Ecuatoriana was not able to meet the lease payment requirements. Rumors that government officials flew their family members for free on Ecuatoriana flights hurt the airline's reputation. During the late 1980s, Ecuatoriana had also developed a reputation as being an unreliable airline; lengthy flight delays and cancellations were commonplace. Faced with these problems, as well as competition from other carriers such as privately owned Ecuadorian carrier SAETA, American Airlines (which had assumed Eastern Air Lines' Latin America routes in 1990), and Continental Airlines, which began serving Ecuador from its Houston hub in 1991, Ecuatoriana ceased operations.
Brazilian airline VASP soon came to save the airline, buying over 50% of it in 1995, and letting the Ecuadorian government retain the other 50%.[6] Ecuatoriana received some Boeing 727s, which were repainted in Miami and at Tucson International Airport in Tucson, Arizona, and, by 1996, short domestic and international services were re-started, with a livery that resembled that of VASP's. A single DC-10, also borrowed from VASP, allowed the airline to re-introduce services to Madrid's Barajas International Airport.
By 2000, Ecuatoriana was caught up in an overall collapse of Ecuador's economy and once again found itself in financial trouble, and VASP decided to sell its part of the airline, with both Aero Continente and Lan Chile being bidders at that time.[7] Despite it was claimed Lan Chile was not interested in Ecuatoriana, it was operating its own aircraft on behalf of Ecuatoriana on the lucrative routes to the USA, after Ecuatoriana's aircraft were repossessed by the lessors in late 2000.[8] Following the rejection of Aero Continente's bid and the suspension of Ecuatoriana's air operator certificate, Ecuador's civil aviation authority cleared Lan Chile to start up a subsidiary named Lan Ecuador, set to fly many international routes previously operated by Ecuatoriana.[9][10]
Lan Chile owned fifty percent of the airline, wet-leasing two Boeing 767's to the company, but in 2004 they sold their part to Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano. By early 2005 LAN had taken over their routes and fleet.
Ecuatoriana served the following destinations throughout its history:
The airline operated the following equipment all through its history:
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