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 Comodoro Rivadavia (), often shortened to Comodoro ( ), is a city in the Patagonian Provinces of Argentina, province of Chubut Province, Chubut in southern Argentina, located on the San Jorge Gulf, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, at the foot of th ...

, 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 Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

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-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper ...

DC-4 The Douglas DC-4 is an American four-engined (piston), propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Military versions of the plane, the C-54 and R5D, served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1960 ...

s 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

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 Stanley (also known as Port Stanley) is the capital city of the Falkland Islands. It is located on the island of East Falkland, on a north-facing slope in one of the wettest parts of the islands. At the 2016 census, the city had a population o ...

run was initially operated with F27 equipment. The limited length of the runway at

Port Stanley Airport Port Stanley Airport , also merely known as Stanley Airport, is a small civil airport in the Falkland Islands, located from the capital, Stanley. This airport is the only civilian airport in the islands with a paved runway. However, the m ...

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 The Lockheed L-100 Hercules is the civilian variant of the prolific C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft made by the Lockheed Corporation. Its first flight occurred in 1964. Longer L-100-20 and L-100-30 versions were developed, despite thi ...

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 Calafate, also called ''Calafate'', is a city in the Argentine province of Santa Cruz, in Patagonia. It is located on the southern border of Lago Argentino, in the southwest part of the province (about northwest of Río Gallegos). The name ...

, El Palomar,

Gobernador Gregores Gobernador Gregores () is a town in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, formerly known as ''Cañadón León''. Ramón Outerello, one of the leaders of the massive strike known as Patagonia rebelde was executed there by a firing squad of the Argent ...

Lago Argentino Lago Argentino is a lake in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, at . It is the largest freshwater lake in Argentina, with a surface area of and a maximum width of . The lake's waters have an average depth of , with a maximum depth ...

Mar del Plata Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Argentine Sea, Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón Partido, General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires ...

, 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 Paraná, Paranã or Parana may refer to: Geology * Paraná Basin, a sedimentary basin in South America Places In Argentina *Paraná, Entre Ríos, a city * Paraná Department, a part of Entre Ríos Province In Brazil *Paraná (state), a state ...

Puerto Madryn Puerto Madryn (; ), usually known as Madryn, is a city in the province of Chubut in Argentine Patagonia. It is the capital of the Viedma Department, and has about 103,175 inhabitants according to the last census in 2022. Puerto Madryn is pr ...

Río Gallegos Rio or Río is the Portuguese and Spanish word for "river". The word also exists in Italian, but is largely obsolete and used in a poetical or literary context to mean "stream". Rio, RIO or Río may also refer to: Places United States * Rio, Fl ...

Río Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Me ...

San Antonio Oeste San Antonio Oeste is a port city in the Argentine province of Río Negro, and head of the department of San Antonio. The town is bordered by its sister communities of San Antonio Este, to the east, and Las Grutas, to the southwest. Discovered ...

San Carlos de Bariloche San Carlos de Bariloche (from the Mapuche name ''Vuriloche'', meaning "people from the other side of the mountain"), commonly known simply as Bariloche (), is the largest city in the Argentine province of Río Negro and the seat of the departm ...

San Martín de los Andes San Martín de los Andes is a city in the south-west of the , serving as the administration centre of the Lácar Department. Lying at the foot of the Andes, on the Lácar lake, it is considered one of the main tourism destinations in the province. ...

Trelew Trelew (, from "town" and the name of the founder, Lewis Jones) is a city in the eastern part of the Chubut Province of Argentina, 21km away from the coast. Located in Patagonia, the city is the largest and most populous in the low valley of the ...

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 F28 The Fokker F28 Fellowship is a twin-engined, short-range jet airliner designed and built by Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. Following the Fokker F27 Friendship, an early and commercially successful turboprop-powered regional airliner, Fokk ...

s and one Lockheed L-100-30 Hercules. From December 2008 four

Saab 340 The Saab 340 is a Swedish twin-engine turboprop aircraft designed and initially produced by Saab AB and Fairchild Aircraft. It is designed to seat 30–36 passengers and, as of July 2018, there were 240 operational aircraft used by 34 differen ...

s 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): *

(

General Enrique Mosconi International Airport General Enrique Mosconi International Airport () is an international airport in the Chubut Province, Argentina serving Comodoro Rivadavia. The airfield is located north of the city, covers an area of , and has a terminal. The airport is t ...

) *

(

Comandante Armando Tola International Airport Comandante Armando Tola International Airport () is an airport in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. It is located approximately east of the city of El Calafate. The airport is jointly operated by the government and London Supply. The airport ...

) *

( Piloto Civil N. Fernández International Airport) *

(

Hermes Quijada International Airport Hermes Quijada International Airport () is an airport in Tierra del Fuego Province, Argentina serving the city of Río Grande. It is operated by Aeropuertos Argentina 2000. Airlines and destinations Passenger Cargo Statistics See also * ...

) *

( Malvinas Argentinas International Airport)

Fleet

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

*4

Saab 340B The Saab 340 is a Swedish twin-engine turboprop aircraft designed and initially produced by Saab AB and Fairchild Aircraft. It is designed to seat 30–36 passengers and, as of July 2018, there were 240 operational aircraft used by 34 different ...

Boeing 737-700 The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as 737NG, or 737 Next Gen, is a twin-engine narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Launched in 1993 as the third-generation derivative of the Boeing 737, it has been pr ...

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

, 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 The Boeing 707 is an early American long-range narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, the initial first flew on December 20, 1957. Pan Am beg ...

*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

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

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lade Airlines of Argentina Airlines established in 1945 Argentine Air Force Government-owned airlines Military airlines Companies based in Buenos Aires Argentine companies established in 1945