Aviaco

The financial structure of the company was re-organised in 1959, when the capital was halved to

By 1965, a joint Aviaco-Iberia board was set up to coordinate aviation policies, which ensured that Aviaco and Iberia routes did not compete with each other.

In 1973, Aviaco became the 46th airline worldwide in ordering the

At March 1980 (1980-03), the company had more than 1200 employees and it was 90%-owned by INI.

During the 1990s, the

During its heyday, Aviaco ("AO") was well known for operating charter flights primarily from Palma, Tenerife and Girona to almost every provincial airport in Europe, providing uplift for all major tour operators, such as Thomson, Enterprise, Cosmos and ILG. In fact, ILG's combined operations (Intasun, Lancaster, Global and Sol) signed an exclusive deal with AO to operate charters from all UK airports not covered by its own Air Europe brand. Aviaco earned itself a bad reputation in the international travel sector; it became known for its old aircraft (DC-9's), mediocre service and delays. However, the airline gained something of a cult status amongst travellers, who ultimately saw their Aviaco flight as part of the holiday experience.

During the mid-late 1980s, Aviaco sub-chartered aircraft from IBERIA to provide seasonal added capacity to its DC-9 fleet, which saw weekly forays of Iberia Boeing 727s, A300s and even Boeing 747-200s operating charter services on Aviaco's behalf into airports across Europe that had otherwise only handled 737 and DC9 sized aircraft up to that point.

Accidents and incidents

Date	Location	Aircraft	Tail number	Aircraft damage	Fatalities	Description	Refs
24 November 1949	Menorca	Bristol 170	EC-ADK	W/O	0	Overshot the runway on landing at Mahón Airport .	[29]
4 December 1953	Guadarrama	Bristol 170	EC-AEG	W/O	23/33	Crashed at Guadarrama. The aircraft was operating a domestic scheduled Bilbao–Madrid passenger service.	[30]
29 September 1956	Tenerife	SNCASE Languedoc	EC-AKV	W/O	1	The aircraft that was completing a domestic scheduled Los Rodeos Airport , killing one person on the ground.	[31]
9 May 1957	Madrid	Bristol 170	EC-ADI	W/O	37/37	While on approach to spin , crashed and caught fire.	[32]
14 April 1958	Barcelona	de Havilland Heron	EC-ANJ	W/O	16/16	The aircraft had departed Zaragoza on a scheduled passenger service to Barcelona with 16 people on board. When another aircraft took off from Barcelona as the Heron was approaching, the Heron pilot made a sudden turn and the aircraft stalled and fell into the sea.	[33]
4 December 1958	Guadarrama	SNCASE Languedoc	EC-ANR	W/O	21/21	The aircraft had departed Vigo on a scheduled passenger service to Madrid with 21 people on board. Crashed into Sierra de Guadarrama and burst into flames, killing all occupants. Icing was the apparent cause of the accident.	[34][35]
13 August 1973	A Coruña	Sud Aviation Caravelle	EC-BIC	W/O	86	One of the deadliest aircraft crashes in mainland Spain occurred when Flight 118, a Sud Aviation Caravelle, hit eucalyptus trees on approach to A Coruña Airport due to pilot error, crashed to the ground, striking several houses, and then burned out, killing all 85 people on board and one person on the ground.	[36]
7 December 1983	Madrid	DC-9-32	EC-CGS	W/O	93	The Boeing 727-200 was taking off for Rome , running along the very same runway the Aviaco aircraft had taxied into. The two aircraft collided in dense fog, killing all 42 occupants of the DC-9 and 51 of the 93 people aboard the Boeing 727.	[37][38]
30 March 1992	Granada	DC-9-32	EC-BYH	W/O	0	Granada Airport . The aircraft was completing a domestic Madrid–Granada passenger service as Flight 231.	[39]
21 March 1994	Vigo	DC-9-32	EC-CLE	W/O	0	One of the wings hit Vigo Airport . The aircraft landed some 50 metres (160 ft) short of the runway, causing both main gears to separate and the airframe to slide for almost 600 metres (2,000 ft) before coming to rest. A fire erupted due to a fuel leak. The aircraft was completing a domestic Madrid–Vigo passenger service as Flight 260.	[40]

See also