Aerocondor (ATA Aerocondor Transportes Aéreos Lda.) was one of the first private capital Portuguese

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 ...

s certified by the ''Instituto Nacional de Aviação Civil (INAC)'' (''National Institute for Civil Aviation'') to transport passengers, as well as operating flight school operations based in

Cascais Cascais () is a town and municipality in the Lisbon District of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera, Estoril Coast. The municipality has a total of 214,158 inhabitants in an area of 97.40 km2. Cascais is an important tourism in Port ...

. The regional airline operated scheduled services in mainland

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

and to

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

, as well as scheduled passenger services in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and charter services to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, from bases at Lisbon(-Portela de Sacavem) and Funchal/Madeira(-Santa Cruz/Santa Catarina), and its flight school in Cascais(-Tires) Aerodrome.

History

The airline began operations in 1975, under the auspices of the ''Aerocondor Group''. Aerocondor was founded by former Colonel in the Portuguese Air Force, Victor Brito, with the assistance of his oldest son, Victor João Brito. During the course of its first years, the airline operated regular flights between Bragança and Vila Real, with private passenger and cargo flights to destinations in Europe, Africa and Middle East. It operated a small fleet of robust bi-motor turboprop aircraft. The need for qualified pilots lead the Aerocondor Group to provide flight-training school operations. This sector was enhanced with the addition of Victor Brito's second oldest son, José Manuel Brito, who served as vice-president of the company. It was owned by Aerocondor SGPS (85.15%) and Gestair Group (14.85%) and had 90 employees, with headquarters at Cascais Aerodrome. In May 2008, the airline suspended scheduled domestic operations in Portugal.

Flight Training

Yet, as flight operations failed, its aviation school continued to grow, under the hands of Spanish investors who changed its name to Gestair (between 2010 and 2013), when it became part of the GAir Group. Under this umbrella GAir Training Centres expanded flight school bases into Bergamo (Italy), Madrid (Spain) and a new domestic base at Ponte de Sor Aerodrome, supported by an investment of over 50 million euros. After a year, the school changed their headquarters from their base in Cascais to Ponte de Sor. In 2017, the school was acquired by

L3 Technologies L3 Technologies, formerly L-3 Communications Holdings, was an American company that supplied command and control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance ( C3ISR) systems and products, avionics, ocean products, training ...

, who integrated it into its L3 Commercial Training Solutions division and rebranded it L3 Airline Academy.

Destinations

Aerocondor operated services to the following scheduled domestic destinations: * Bragança (BGC/LPBG) * Vila Real (-Tras os Montes) (VRL/LPVR) In addition, it served international seasonal services to and from

Agen Agen (, , ) is the prefecture of the Lot-et-Garonne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Southwestern France. It lies on the river Garonne, southeast of Bordeaux. In 2021, the commune had a population of 32,485. Geography The city of Agen l ...

and Bragança, as well as charter fights between the islands of

and Porto Santo.

Fleet

Since June 2008, Aerocondor is not in possession of any aircraft any more due to financial problems. Initial plans were to purchase or lease

Boeing 757 The Boeing 757 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the trijet Boeing 727, 727, received its first orders in August 1978. The ...

or 767 aircraft in order to expand, but instead

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

was declared. Formerly operated aircraft include: *

ATR 42-300 The ATR 42 is a regional airliner produced by Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR, with final assembly in Toulouse, France. On 4 November 1981, the aircraft was launched with ATR, as a joint venture between French Aérospatiale (now part of Airbu ...

Dornier 228 The Dornier 228 is a twin-turboprop STOL utility aircraft, designed and first manufactured by Dornier GmbH (later DASA Dornier, Fairchild-Dornier) from 1981 until 1998. 245 were built in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. In 1983, Hindustan Aeronautics ...

* Shorts 360 *

Piper Chieftain The Piper PA-31 Navajo is a family of twin-engined low-wing tricycle gear utility aircraft designed and built by Piper Aircraft for small cargo airline, cargo and regional airline, feeder airlines, and as a corporate aircraft. Production ran f ...

(for air taxi services)

References

External links

* {{authority control Defunct airlines of Portugal Airlines established in 1975 Airlines disestablished in 2008 Cascais Municipal Aerodrome Portuguese companies established in 1975