Cielos del Sur S.A., operating as Austral Líneas Aéreas, was a domestic airline of
Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
, the sister company of
Aerolíneas Argentinas. It was the second-largest domestic scheduled airline in the country, after Aerolíneas Argentinas. As a subsidiary of Aerolíneas Argentinas, the company shared its headquarters with that airline, which is located in the
Aeroparque Jorge Newbery
Jorge Newbery Airfield , commonly known as Aeroparque, is an international airport northwest of Buenos Aires Central Business District, downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina. The airport covers an area of and is operated by ''Aeropuertos Argentina ...
of Buenos Aires, the main base of operations of the company.
Austral was fully integrated into Aerolíneas Argentinas; however, some differences arose, especially those relying upon the unions the staff of both companies are affiliated to, which led to constant conflicts. In May 2020 it was announced that Austral would
merge with Aerolíneas, saving an estimated 100 million US Dollars and eliminating Austral as a brand. Austral ended operations on 30 November 2020.
, the airline operated an all-
Embraer 190 fleet.
History
The origins of the carrier trace back to 1957,
when ''Compañía Austral de Transportes Aéreos SACI (CATASACI)'' was founded, starting scheduled services in .
CATASACI focused its services on southwestern Argentina, but it also operated international flights to
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 ...
,
Puerto Montt
Puerto Montt (Mapuche: Meli Pulli) is a port city and commune in southern Chile, located at the northern end of the Reloncaví Sound in the Llanquihue Province, Los Lagos Region, 1,055 km to the south of the capital, Santiago. The commune ...
and
Punta Arenas
Punta Arenas (, historically known as Sandy Point in English) is the capital List of cities in Chile, city of Chile's southernmost Regions of Chile, region, Magallanes Region, Magallanes and Antarctica Chilena. Although officially renamed as ...
.
''Aerotransportes Litoral Argentino (ALA)'' was a
Rosario
Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city, located northwest of Buenos Aires on the west bank of the Paraná River, is the third-most populous city in the ...
–based company that was founded in 1957 to operate flights between this city and Buenos Aires using
Aero Commander equipment and operated flights within northern Argentina.
In 1965,
Pan Am acquired a 22% stake in ALA in return for supplying the company with
DC-3s.
A year later, CATASACI acquired a 30% holding in ALA and the services of both companies were integrated.

At , the ALA fleet consisted of two
C-46s, five DC-3s, two
DC-6Bs and five
YS-11A-300s that served a domestic network including Buenos Aires,
Corrientes,
Formosa,
Goya,
Paraná,
Paso de los Libres,
Posadas,
Resistencia, Rosario,
Salta
Salta () is the capital and largest city in the Provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Salta Province, the same name. With a population of 618,375 according to the 2010 census, it is also the List of cities in Argentina, 7th most-populous ...
,
Santa Fe and
Tucumán, plus regional services to
Antofagasta
Antofagasta () is a port city in northern Chile, about north of Santiago. It is the capital of Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region. According to the 2015 census, the city has a population of 402,669.
Once claimed by Bolivia follo ...
and
Asunción
Asunción (, ) is the capital and the largest city of Paraguay. The city stands on the eastern bank of the Paraguay River, almost at the confluence of this river with the Pilcomayo River. The Paraguay River and the Bay of Asunción in the north ...
,
whereas CATASACI had a fleet that included seven
BAC One-Eleven
The BAC One-Eleven (BAC-111, BAC 1-11) is a retired early jet airliner produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC).
Conceived by Hunting Aircraft as a 30-seat jet, before its merger into BAC in 1960, it was launched as an 80-seat airl ...
s —four 400s and three 500s—, one C-46, one
DC-6 and three
YS-11s.
''Austral Líneas Aéreas'' was formally established in that year from the merger of CATASACI and ALA.
In practice, operations of the latter airline were absorbed by CATASACI, which was rebranded as ''Austral Líneas Aéreas S.A.'' after merging. Austral inherited both companies' fleet, consisting of turboprops
NAMC YS-11 and jetliners
BAC One-Eleven
The BAC One-Eleven (BAC-111, BAC 1-11) is a retired early jet airliner produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC).
Conceived by Hunting Aircraft as a 30-seat jet, before its merger into BAC in 1960, it was launched as an 80-seat airl ...
.

Austral became a
government-owned company in 1980. After poor economic performances, there were two failed attempts to re-privatise Austral in 1981 and 1983. All that time Austral and Aerolíneas Argentinas were competitors on a number of domestic routes. Realizing that such a situation could not persist much longer, the government decided again to privatise Austral. This was much resisted by the Aerolíneas Argentinas' personnel, and more specifically its pilots, who claimed their salaries were lower than those of Austral's counterparts. Aerolíneas Argentinas' pilots union understood the government effort was not to solve their affiliates salary conflict, but to focus on privatising a loss-making carrier as Austral was instead. The consequence of this discrepance was the announcement that Aerolíneas Argentinas flights were to be indefinitely suspended by way of a strike, effective 1 July 1986. The strike affected both Aerolineas Argentinas' domestic and international operations. Argentine as well as foreign carriers were benefited from this strike. Ironically, Austral was included among those carriers, gaining the domestic market share Aerolíneas Argentinas lost.
Austral became once again a
privately owned firm when it was acquired by the holding company Cielos del Sur S.A. in late 1987.
The acquisition generated some controversy on the Argentine aviation sector at that time, as it was raised that the new owner had little or no experience in managing an airline. In April 1988, the carrier became an
IATA
The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is an airline trade association founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff conferences tha ...
member. Shortly afterwards, the company faced a major accident during its new private era on 12 June 1988, when a
McDonnell Douglas MD-81 hit a tree on a low visibility approach into
Posadas and crashed. Apart from the 22 fatalities involved in the accident, it also spread concerns on the aviation sector over the airline's poor rate of occupation on some routes, of just 10.32% for this particular flight.
Cielos del Sur S.A. and
Iberia
The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...
formed a
consortium
A consortium () is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations, or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a ...
to acquire an 85% stake in Aerolíneas Argentinas in 1990, within the framework of that
flag carrier privatisation. Soon afterwards, Cielos del Sur S.A. sold Austral to Iberia. The destiny of both Aerolíneas Argentinas and Austral became aligned thereafter. By July 1998, the company was 10% owned by its erstwhile competitor Aerolíneas Argentinas.
On 21 July 2008 the
Argentine Government took the airline back into state control after acquiring 99.4% of the share capital for an undisclosed price. The remaining 0.6% continues to be owned by the company's employees. In September 2008, Argentina's Senate approved the nationalization of Aerolíneas Argentinas and its subsidiary Austral Líneas Aéreas on a 46–21 vote in favor of the takeover.
In Aerolíneas Argentinas launched a new paint scheme to revamp the airline's image. The new livery resembles the colour blue of Argentina's flag and the colour yellow of the sun. As its subsidiary airline, Austral also adopted the new image. Austral's livery actually differs from the Aerolíneas Argentinas' one by a red cheatline only.
In the meantime the airline also announced the incorporation of 20 new Embraer 190 to its fleet, receiving the first two of them in September 2010.
Destinations
The ''Federal Corridor'' (), was a two-way route linking the cities of
Bariloche,
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 ...
,
Córdoba,
Iguazú,
Mendoza and
Salta
Salta () is the capital and largest city in the Provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Salta Province, the same name. With a population of 618,375 according to the 2010 census, it is also the List of cities in Argentina, 7th most-populous ...
. Although the corridor is commercially run by Aerolíneas Argentinas, the route is operated using Austral equipment.
Fleet

Austral Líneas Aéreas underwent a major fleet renewal. In 2009, the company signed a contract with
Embraer for the purchase of 20
Embraer 190s,
in a deal worth million that was 85% financed by
BNDES
The National Bank for Economic and Social Development or NBESD (, abbreviated: BNDES) is a development bank structured as a federal public company associated with the Ministry of the Economy of Brazil. The stated goal is to provide long-term f ...
.
Two more
E-190s were ordered in ;
the first of these two aircraft was incorporated into the fleet in .
The airline's fleet consisted of the following aircraft ():
Retired

Austral previously operated the following equipment:
*
BAC One-Eleven 400
*
BAC One-Eleven 500
*
Boeing 737-200
*
CASA CN-235 (operated for Inter Austral, a former Córdoba-based subsidiary of Austral)
*
Curtiss C-46
*
Douglas DC-4
*
Douglas DC-6
The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1946 to 1958. Originally intended as a military transport near the end of World War II, Douglas reworked it after the war to compete ...
*
Douglas DC-6A
*
Douglas DC-6B
*
Fokker F27-100
*
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30
*
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-50
*
McDonnell Douglas MD-81
*
McDonnell Douglas MD-82
*
McDonnell Douglas MD-83
*
McDonnell Douglas MD-88
*
NAMC YS-11-100
*
NAMC YS-11A-300
Accidents and incidents
,
Aviation Safety Network records 11 accidents/incidents for Austral Líneas Aéreas, totalling 224 deaths.
The list below includes
hull-loss accidents only.
See also
*
Aerolíneas Argentinas accidents and incidents
*
List of BAC One-Eleven operators
*
List of Embraer 190 operators
*
List of NAMC YS-11 operators
*
Transport in Argentina
Notes
References
External links
Official website(archived, 29 Mar 2018)
Unión de Aviadores de Líneas Aéreas (UALA)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Austral Lineas Aereas
Defunct airlines of Argentina
Airlines established in 1957
Airlines disestablished in 2020
2020 disestablishments in Argentina
*
Argentine companies established in 1957
Argentine brands
Former SkyTeam affiliate members