AeroSur: История Боливийской Авиакомпании

Defunct Bolivian airline

Compañía Boliviana de Transporte Aéreo Privado Aerosur, S. A. (shortened and styled AeroSur) was a privately owned airline from Bolivia, which served as the country's flag carrier since 1998, along with state owned Boliviana de Aviación. Headquartered in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, it operated a network of domestic and international scheduled passenger flights with its hub at the city's Viru Viru International Airport. As of 2010, the airline had 1200 employees.

AeroSur was established in April 1992, following the deregulation of the Bolivian airline market, which previously had been controlled by state owned Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano. Revenue flights on regional routes were commenced on August 24 of that year, which made the inauguration of long haul flights possible. In 2002, President Hugo Banzer declared the airline the flag carrier of the Republic of Bolivia (línea aérea bandera), in that very year AeroSur became the first airline in Bolivia to offer business and first class flights. In 2004, AeroSur had started to operate nostalgic flights with a Douglas C 117 to tourist destinations such as the Salar de Uyuni and Rurrenabaque, both of which are internationally recognized. When Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano went bankrupt in 2007, AeroSur became the largest airline of Bolivia and the only one with intercontinental flights (to Central and North America as well as to Europe). Since 2009, the domestic fleet of ageing Boeing 727s is replaced by more modern, though second hand purchased Boeing 737 Classic airliners, Ultimately, AeroSur struggled to keep its operations running smoothly and returned its 767 aircraft to the lessor. Unfortunately, the brand could never be consolidated as one legitimate and legally operational airline, it only became the name for one of the Bolivian airline's aircraft that has already been withdrawn from its fleet due to the financial problems that afflict one of the most important private airlines in Bolivia in recent years.

AeroSur's destination network was organized around Viru Viru International Airport from where it offered services to various cities in South America, as well as direct flights to Miami and Madrid.

On 31 December 1997, an AeroSur Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner (registered CP 2321) was substantially damaged when it veered off the runway at Teniente Jorge Henrich Arauz Airport. The two pilots had lost control of the aircraft during take off run. There were no notable injuries amongst the 18 passengers on board.

2008: Named Most Powerful Brand among Bolivian airlines by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

AeroSur also greatly supported the sport, especially football, where it created the Copa Aerosur and la Copa AeroSur del Sur and in mid 2009, the AeroSur Futsal Cup was organized for the first time, where CRE and AeroSur from Bolivia, River Plate of Argentina and President Hayes of Paraguay, in which the host team AeroSur won. Many street signs amongst others in Cochabamba, such as the signs for C. Mexico street, were financed by AeroSur and to this day still bear the Airline's name.