Compañía Aeronáutica Uruguaya S.A. (CAUSA) was a private

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 ...

company in

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

, which operated between 1938 and 1967.

History

Compañía Aeronáutica Uruguaya SA (The Uruguay Aeronautics Company Ltd.) was founded on December 29, 1936 by the

Uruguayan Uruguayans () are people identified with the country of Uruguay, through citizenship or descent. Uruguay is home to people of different ethnic origins. As a result, many Uruguayans do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, but with citizen ...

banker Luis J. Supervielle and Colonel Tydeo Larre Borges. The airline intended to concentrate its operations on the busy and financially lucrative

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

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 ...

route. Operations began on March 12, 1938 with two

Junkers Ju 52 The Junkers Ju 52/3m (nicknamed ''Tante Ju'' ("Aunt Ju") and ''Iron Annie'') is a transport aircraft that was designed and manufactured by German aviation company Junkers. First introduced during 1930 as a civilian airliner, it was adapted int ...

s carrying seventeen passengers and configured as floatplanes. The Junkers 52s were well-built, new, strong, dependable, aircraft and a good economic choice for CAUSA. At the same time the Junkers 52 was used as the main airliner by

Deutsche Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks second in Europe by ...

and as transports (and sometimes as bombers) by the

Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...

. The Junkers airplanes acquired by CAUSA were the CX-ABA(C/N 5877) baptized "El Uruguayo" and the CX-ABB(C/N 5886) "El Argentino". CAUSA's entry to the airline market at that time put it in competition with the Argentine airline corporation, Sudamericana de Servicios Aéreos (South-American Air Services), which also connected the ports of the two capitals. By January 1940, a route to the holiday resort of

Punta del Este Punta del Este () is a seaside city and peninsula on the Atlantic Coast in the Maldonado Department of southeastern Uruguay. Starting as a small town, Punta del Este grew to become a resort for the Latin and North American jet set and tourists. T ...

was added. In 1943 another new route was opened between

and Colonia, only 35 miles across the

Rio de la Plata 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 ...

. In Colonia, a bus service ran to CAUSA's main offices at Montevideo. These three routes were the only ones operated by the airline in its nearly 30 years of service. At the end of World War II, CAUSA began competing with the Argentine airline A.L.F.A., precursor of the future

Aerolíneas Argentinas Aerolíneas Argentinas, formally ''Aerolíneas Argentinas S.A.'', is the state-owned flag carrier of Argentina and the country's largest airline. The airline was created in 1949, from the merger of Aeroposta Argentina (AA), Aviación del Lito ...

, and purchased two modified

Short Sunderland The Short S.25 Sunderland is a British flying boat Maritime patrol aircraft, patrol bomber, developed and constructed by Short Brothers for the Royal Air Force (RAF). The aircraft took its service name from the town (latterly, city) and port of ...

flying boats. After reaping success, the company decided to buy a third flying boat. This one was delivered in 1946. The Short Sunderlands were the CX-AFA(C/N SH.5C) "General Artigas", the CX-AKF(C/N SH.6C) ex-"Corporación Sudamericana de Servicios Aéreos" and the CX-AKR(C/N SH 60C) "Capitán Boiso Lanza".

Short Sunderland CX-AKR "Capitán Boiso Lanza" (1946)

By 1950, with the continuing success of the flying boat services, two

Short Sandringham The Short S.25 Sandringham is a British civilian flying boat designed and originally produced by Short Brothers. They were produced as conversions of the widely used Short Sunderland, a military flying boat that was commonly used as a maritime ...

7s were purchased and added to the fleet: the CX-ANA(C/N SH.59C)ex BOAC and the CX-ANI(C/N SH.58C) also an ex BOAC airplane. The flying boats remained in service until 1963. Two of the flying boats were written-off after accidents (the Short Sandringham CX-ANA on October 22, 1955 and the Short Sunderland CX-AFA on September 11, 1956) and retired from service. By 1961, flying boats were declining as passenger's choice of preference. The service was finally suspended as of May 1962. L749A CX-BCS

The airline decided to revise its strategy and purchased four Curtiss C-46 landplanes to supplement the shortage. The airplanes acquired in 1961 were the C-46F CX-AYR c/n 22403, C-46A CX-AZS c/n 30393 ex-Real Aerovías Brasil, C-46F CX-BAH c/n 22531 and the C-46F CX-BAM c/n 22392. The C-46 service was very short and by 1964 all four airplanes were sold to ARCO Aerolíneas Colonia S.A. It was then decided to use more capable types and in 1962 a purchase contract was signed with

KLM KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, or simply KLM (an abbreviation for their official name Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V. , ),

for three

Lockheed Constellation The Lockheed Constellation ("Connie") is a propeller-driven, four-engined airliner built by Lockheed Corporation starting in 1943. The Constellation series was the first civil airliner family to enter widespread use equipped with a pressurized cab ...

s model L-749A. Two of the Constellations were delivered in 1962 and the third arrived in 1963. These fine looking airplanes with a beautiful shape were familiar and appreciated sights on its daily arrivals at the airports in Buenos Aires Aeroparque or Montevideo Carrasco. The Constellations of CAUSA were the CX-BBM (C/N 2881) ex PH-TFG, CX-BBN (C/N 2641) ex PH-TFE and the CX-BCS (C/N 2640) ex PH-TFD. Another Lockhheed L1049H was leased in June 1966. The Constellations remained in service until the demise of the airline by May 1967. In the end, the airline announced its intention to operate a Montevideo to

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

route and a Montevideo to

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

route, but these routes never materialized.

Fleet

1938 CX-ABA Junkers Ju 52/3m c/n 5877 "El Uruguayo" (The Uruguayan) (hydroplane) CX-ABB Junkers Ju 52/3m c/n 5886 "El Argentino" (The Argentinean)(hydroplane) 1946 CX-AFA Short Sunderland c/n SH.5C "General Artigas" ex-R.A.F. w/o 11 September 1956 CX-AKF Short Sunderland c/n SH.6C ex-A.L.F.A.-Corporación Sudamericana de Servicios Aéreos (South American Corporation of Air Services) CX-AKR Short Sunderland c/n SH 60C "Capitán Boiso Lanza" (Captain Boiso Lanza) ex-R.A.F. 1950 CX-ANA Short Sandringham 7 c/n SH.59C ex- B.O.A.C. w/o 22 October 1955 CX-ANI Short Sandringham 7 c/n SH.58C ex- B.O.A.C. 1961 CX-AYR Curtiss C-46F c/n 22403 CX-AZS Curtiss C-46A c/n 30393, ex-Real Aerovías Brasil (ex-Real Brazil Airways) CX-BAH Curtiss C-46F c/n 22531 CX-BAM Curtiss C-46F c/n 22392 1963 CX-BBM Lockheed L-749A-79-3 c/n 2661 ex KLM PH-TFG "Friesland" CX-BBN Lockheed L-749A-79-33 c/n 2641 ex KLM PH-TFE "Utrecht" CX-BCS Lockheed L-749A-79-33 c/n 2640 ex KLM PH-TFD "Arnhem" 1966 CX-BEM Lockheed L-1049H c/n 4818 ex N101R (leased)

References

República Oriental del Uruguay. Fuerza Aérea (Setenta y cinco aniversario 1913-1988), Imprenta del Ejército Depósito Legal No.232.479 Lockheed Constellation by Curtis K.Stringfellow and Peter M.Bowers, MBI Publishing Company Airlines of Latin America, R.E.G. Davies, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C., 1984 Memorias de Aeroplanos, Alberto Marquez Vaeza, Montevideo, 1989 Aviación Comercial Argentina 1945-1980, Pablo L. Potenze, Ed. El Cronista Comercial, Buenos Aires, 1987

External links

Ratones de Hangar (Hangar Mice)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Compania Aeronautica Uruguaya Defunct airlines of Uruguay Companies based in Montevideo Airlines established in 1936 Airlines disestablished in 1967 1936 in aviation 1936 establishments in Uruguay 1967 disestablishments in Uruguay