SAETA Air Ecuador (legally ''Sociedad Anónima Ecuatoriana de Transportes Aéreos S.A.'') was a privately held airline of Ecuador, which was founded in 1966. During its heyday in the 1990s, it flew to numerous destinations in North and South America from its base in Guayaquil.

History

SAETA was founded in

Quito Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...

in 1966, later the company headquarters were relocated to Guayaquil. The main owners were the Dunn family. In addition to domestic flights, SAETA operated routes in North, Central and South America. It preferred flights to Los Angeles, New York City, Miami, Panamá,

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

, Lima, Santiago and Buenos Aires. In 1990, SAETA took over the Ecuadorian airline SAN, increasing frequencies and fleet for national and international flights. The airline later in 1994 took over LAPSA from Paraguay, operated with an Ecuadorian-Paraguayan Consortium until being sold to

TAM Linhas Aereas LATAM Airlines Brasil, formerly TAM Linhas Aéreas, is the Brazilian brand of LATAM Airlines Group and one of the largest airlines in the country. According to the National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil (ANAC), between January and December 201 ...

in 1996. Political instability in the country and currency devaluation led to a decline in passenger numbers. This was followed by the cancellation of flights to the United States of America due to the loss of the approach permit for Category 1 airports. By the mid-1990s, events such as political instability and the devaluation of the currency, damaged SAETA, which caused a reduction in passengers, added to the cancellation of flights to the United States due to the loss of category 1 of the Ecuadorian aeronautical authority since 1993, accelerating its decline. Both SAN and SAETA had serious security breaches, which resulted in the loss of several flights. In February 2000, SAETA ended its flight operations after severe financial problems following the

1998–1999 Ecuador economic crisis The 1998–99 Ecuador economic crisis was a period of economic instability that resulted from a combined inflationary-currency crisis, financial crisis, fiscal crisis, and sovereign debt crisis. Severe inflation and devaluation of the sucre led to ...

Destinations

( Old Mariscal Sucre International Airport) Hub ** San Cristóbal Island (

San Cristóbal Airport San Cristóbal Airport is an airport on the island of San Cristóbal, in the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador. The airport is on the southwestern end of the island, with rising terrain to the northeast. Approaches to both runways are over the ocean ...

) * ** Panama City ( Tocumen International Airport) * ** Lima ( Jorge Chávez International Airport) * ** Los Angeles (

Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the W ...

) ** Miami ( Miami International Airport) ** New York City ( John F. Kennedy International Airport) * **

( Simón Bolívar International Airport)

Fleet

SAETA had operated the following aircraft since it commenced operations:

Accidents and incidents

*On July 3, 1969, a Douglas C-47 was hijacked on a domestic flight from

Tulcán Airport Teniente Coronel Luis A. Mantilla International Airport is a high elevation airport serving Tulcán, capital of the Carchi Province of Ecuador. The Ipiales VOR-DME (Ident: IPI) is located northeast of the airport, across the border in Colo ...

to Mariscal Sucre International Airport. The hijackers demanded to be taken to Cuba. *On October 20, 1971, a Vickers Viscount was hijacked by six people. It landed at Mariscal Lamar International Airport. *On August 15, 1976, SAETA Flight 232, a Vickers Viscount (registered HC-ARS) crashed into the Chimborazo volcano, killing all 59 people on board. The flight was considered missing until February 2003, after an independent verification of aircraft wreckage that was discovered in October 2002. *On April 23, 1979, a Vickers Viscount (registered HC-AVP)

crashed "Crashed" is the third U.S. rock single, (the fifth overall), from the band Daughtry's debut album. It was released only to U.S. rock stations on September 5, 2007. Upon its release the song got adds at those stations, along with some Alternativ ...

in the Pastaza Province on a flight between the

and Cuenca, killing all 57 people on board. The flight was considered missing until 1984, when the wreckage was discovered. The aircraft was off track. *On January 18, 1986, a

Sud Aviation Caravelle The Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle is a French jet airliner produced by Sud Aviation. It was developed by SNCASE in the early 1950s and made its maiden flight on 27 May 1955. It included some de Havilland designs and components developed for t ...

(registered HC-BAE), operated by

Aerovías Aerovías is a defunct private passenger and cargo airline formerly based in Guatemala La Aurora International Airport founded by Jimmy K Hall. It was the first private airline in Guatemala. It was operational between 1977 and 1998. While one of ...

, crashed in a jungle area after executing a second missed approach procedure at

Flores International Airport Mundo Maya International Airport ( es, Aeropuerto Internacional Mundo Maya, ), formerly Flores International Airport as indicated by its 3-letter code, is an international airport located in the suburb of Santa Elena, in the city of Flores, G ...

. Low lying clouds in the area forced the crew to carry out the missed approaches. All 88 passengers and 6 crew members died in the accident. *On August 22, 1997, a Boeing 727-200 (registered HC-BVU) landed at

with its undercarriage strucked the raised lip of the runway, causing it to collapse. After sliding for about 700 m before coming to rest on the right side of the runway.

References

External links

SAETA aircraft
{{Airlines of Ecuador

SAETA SAETA Air Ecuador (legally ''Sociedad Anónima Ecuatoriana de Transportes Aéreos S.A.'') was a privately held airline of Ecuador, which was founded in 1966. During its heyday in the 1990s, it flew to numerous destinations in North and South Ame ...