Líneas Aéreas del Estado (LADE, ) is an

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

based in Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina. It is owned by the government of Argentina and operated by the

Argentine Air Force The Argentine Air Force (, or simply ''FAA'') is the air force of Argentina and one of three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic. In 2018, it had 13,837 military and 6,900 civilian personnel. FAA commander in chief is Brigadie ...

. It provides domestic scheduled services, mainly in Patagonia.

History

The airline was established as an arm of the

in to service unprofitable routes to remote areas. It was initially known as ''Líneas Aéreas Suroeste'' and consolidated under the present title in 1945 with another air force branch, ''Líneas Aéreas Noreste''. By , DC-3s, DC-4s and

Vikings Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

made up LADE's fleet. Argentina Air Force Fokker F-27-400M Troopship Lofting-1

At March 1970, LADE had 150 employees and its fleet consisted of 14 DC-3s, two DC-4s, three DC-6s and six

de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter The de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter is a Canadian STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) utility aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada in the mid-1960s and still in production today. Built by De Havilland Canada from 1965 to 1988, Viking ...

s. The carrier started regular flights between Comodoro Rivadavia and the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; ), commonly referred to as The Falklands, is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and from Cape Dub ...

in 1972. The Comodoro Rivadavia– Port Stanley run was initially operated with F27 equipment. The limited length of the runway at Port Stanley Airport resulted in weight regulations to the aircraft operating the route, which restricted the number of carried passengers to a maximum of 22 per flight, along with a reduced volume of mail and freight. The service was discontinued in 1982, following the

Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...

. At , the airline had a fleet of 11 F27s (five F27-600s and six F27-400Ms) five Fokker F28-1000Cs and seven Twin Otters. Ten years later, at , the fleet had grown to include five Fokker F28-1000Cs, 13 F27s (six F27-400Ms, two F27-500s and five F27-600s), one Lockheed L-100-30 and seven Twin Otters. LADE served a comprehensive domestic network that included scheduled services to

Bahía Blanca Bahía Blanca (; English: ''White Bay''), colloquially referred to by its own local inhabitants as simply Bahía, is a city in the Buenos Aires Province, Buenos Aires province of Argentina, centered on the northwestern end of the eponymous Blanc ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, Comodoro Rivadavia, El Calafate, El Palomar, Gobernador Gregores, Lago Argentino, Mar del Plata, Miramar,

Neuquén Neuquén (; ) is the capital city of the Argentine province of Neuquén and of the Confluencia Department, located in the east of the province. It occupies a strip of land west of the confluence of the Limay and Neuquén rivers which form t ...

, Paraná, Puerto Madryn, Río Gallegos, Río Grande, San Antonio Oeste, San Carlos de Bariloche, San Martín de los Andes, Trelew,

Ushuaia Ushuaia ( , ) is the capital city, capital of Tierra del Fuego Province, Argentina, Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province, Argentina. With a population of 82,615 and a location below the 54th parallel south latitude, U ...

and Viedma. The fleet at this time consisted of Twin Otters, Fokker F27s, Fokker F28s and one Lockheed L-100-30 Hercules. From December 2008 four Saab 340s replaced four

Fokker F27 The Fokker F27 Friendship is a turboprop airliner developed and manufactured by the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. It is the most numerous post-war aircraft manufactured in the Netherlands; the F27 was also one of the most successful Europe ...

s at a cost of million.

Destinations

LADE operates services to the following domestic scheduled destinations (at June 2019): * Comodoro Rivadavia ( General Enrique Mosconi International Airport) * El Calafate ( Comandante Armando Tola International Airport) * Río Gallegos ( Piloto Civil N. Fernández International Airport) * Río Grande ( Hermes Quijada International Airport) *

( Malvinas Argentinas International Airport)

Fleet

The LADE - Líneas Aéreas del Estado fleet consists of the following aircraft

*4 Saab 340B *1 Fokker F28 *1

*1 Boeing 737-700 Those aircraft are for regular flights. The

air force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

cargo fleet is leased by LADE, consisting of: *2 Lockheed Martin C-130H Hercules *1 Lockheed Martin KC-130H Hercules Two surviving Lockheed Martin C-130B Hercules were retired by the

in 2011, while the sole Lockheed Martin L-100-30 Hercules has been inoperative since early 2010. There is a Presidential Fleet which is normally not assigned to LADE: *1 Boeing 757-200, callsign Tango 01 *1 Fokker F28 Mk4000, callsign Tango 02 *1 Fokker F28 Mk1000, callsign Tango 03 The rest of the fleet is inoperative: *2 Boeing 707-320B *7 De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter Series 200 *2 Fokker F28 Mk1000 nearly all flights were operated by Saab 340 aircraft, with the Fokker F28 fleet flying exclusively for the

s were withdrawn from the LADE schedules in April 2009, although they have since been known to operate LADE flights now and again.

Accidents and incidents

References

External links