Nuevo Continente

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Nuevo Continente
IATA
ICAO
Callsign
N6 ACQ AERO CONTINENTE
Founded1992
Ceased operations2005
Lima, Peru
Key peopleFernando Zevallos (founder)
Boeing 737-300
leased to Aero Continente, in 2004.
The logo of Aero Continente.

Nuevo Continente was a passenger

Jorge Chavez International Airport.[1]

History

The airline was founded by

Faucett and Aeroperú
. Aero Continente competed with these airlines by offering extremely low ticket fares.

When Faucett and Aéroperu both went bankrupt in 1999 due to financial difficulties, Aero Continente acquired a

Santiago de Chile. This coincided with the foundation of Aero Continente Chile, a wholly owned subsidiary aiming at the Chile
domestic market using a fleet of five Boeing 737-200 aircraft handed down from its parent.

During the 1990s, the safety reputation of the Peruvian airline industry became a public concern after a series of high-profile accidents; especially

US Embassy in Lima issued a ban on their employees from flying in Aero Continente due to reported issues with their engines, and advised caution to US citizens flying in Peru's airlines, to the point of providing a hotline and a web portal to help tourists know if a certain airline was considered unsafe.[2]

In late 1999, Aero Continente was granted approval to operate on the prestigious Lima to

Boeing 767-200 aircraft. By 2001, the combined international network of the Lima and Santiago based companies had grown to include Buenos Aires, Bogotá, La Paz, Caracas, Guayaquil and Santa Cruz de la Sierra
.

In 2002, the company suffered a setback when Chilean authorities arrested several staff members of Aero Continente Chile over

LAN Airlines, the Chilean flag carrier
.

VFR flights to the Hispanic population centers in New York City, Los Angeles and Madrid
.

A Boeing 727-100 at Jorge Chávez International Airport in the revived Nuevo Continente livery (October 2004).

In 2004, though, Aero Continente had its approval to operate into the United States withdrawn by the

Specially Designated Nationals). Thus, Aero Continente lost its insurance protection, as Global Aerospace
, a partly US-based company that was responsible for this matter, was forced to cease its involvement with the airline. It was also unable to buy spare parts for its mostly US-built fleet. Consequently, all flight operations were ceased on 12 July of that year.

In a comeback effort, the company reacted by changing its ownership structure and adopting the new name Nuevo Continente, but could not get rid of the allegations that it was involved in criminal activities. In 2005, Nuevo Continente had its

airline licence revoked by the Peruvian authorities, officially due to safety concerns.[3]

Fleet

Over the years, Aero Continente (respectively Nuevo Continente) operated the following aircraft types:[4][5][6]

Aircraft Introduced Retired
British Aerospace Jetstream 31
Boeing 727
1992
2005
Boeing 737-100
1996
Boeing 737-200
1992
2005
Boeing 737-300
Boeing 757-200
1999
2003
2000
2004
Boeing 767-200
2000
2005
Fokker F27 Friendship
Fokker F28 Fellowship
2002
2005
[7]
Lockheed L-1011 TriStar
1996
1999

Destinations

Domestic

International

Accidents and incidents

  • In 1996, the airline became the center of a scandal after it became known that two teenagers rode in the cockpit of a flight from Lima to Tarapoto, after being instructed to do so by the flight attendants due to overbooking. This act was a flagrant violation of international air safety standards.[8]
  • On 13 December 2003 at 22:48 local time, the
    flaps. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair, but all 94 passengers and six crew on board survived the accident.[9][10]

References

  1. ^ List of Peruvian airlines at airlineupdate.com
  2. ^ Sims, Calvin (8 June 1997). "Embassy Ban Rekindles Air-Safety Fears in Peru". The New York Times.
  3. ^ History of Aero Continente Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
  4. ^ Aero Continente fleet list at airfleets.net
  5. ^ Nuevo Continente fleet list at airfleets.net
  6. ^ Information about Aero Continente and Nuevo Continente at the Aero Transport Database
  7. ^ rzjets.net
  8. ^ "Embassy Ban Rekindles Air-Safety Fears in Peru (Published 1997)". 1997-06-08. Retrieved 2023-08-16.
  9. ^ Information about Flight 341 at the Aviation Safety Network
  10. ^ Official report on Flight 341 (in Spanish)

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nuevo_Continente&oldid=1171692052"