Línea Aérea Amaszonas S.A. operating as Amas Bolivia (legally as ''Compañía de Servicios de Transporte Aéreo Amaszonas S.A.'') was a regional airline based in

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

, headquartered in

Santa Cruz de la Sierra Santa Cruz de la Sierra (; ), commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the largest city in Bolivia and the capital of the Santa Cruz Department (Bolivia), Santa Cruz department. Situated on the Pirai River (Bolivia), Pirai River in the eastern Tropical ...

with its administrative center in

La Paz La Paz, officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Aymara language, Aymara: Chuqi Yapu ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With 755,732 residents as of 2024, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities by populati ...

. It operated scheduled and chartered short-haul passenger flights throughout the northern and northeastern regions of the country as well as to neighboring

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

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 ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

and

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

, with its network's hub that was located at El Alto International Airport. It was acquired by NELLA Airlines Group (a Brazilian-US holding company) in August 2021 and sold to businessman Luiz Divino in September 2023.

History

The company was founded on October 1, 1998, but flight services were only commenced in 2000. Initially, Amaszonas operated chartered flights using a small fleet of

turboprop A turboprop is a Gas turbine, gas turbine engine that drives an aircraft Propeller (aeronautics), propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction drive, reduction gearbox, gas compressor, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propellin ...

airliners of the types Cessna 208 Caravan and

Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner The Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner (previously the Swearingen Metro and later Fairchild Aerospace Metro) is a 19-seat, Cabin pressurization, pressurized, twin-turboprop airliner first produced by Sino Swearingen Aircraft Corporation, Swearingen ...

. In 2012, following the demise of AeroSur, five Bombardier CRJ200 were acquired from Avmax Aircraft Leasing Inc. to launch scheduled passenger services. The first one of these 50-seat jet aircraft was put in service in late August on the

route. In late 2014, Amaszonas announced it would lease 9 CRJ200 aircraft to expand its regional network and intended to fly to up to 40 destinations by 2017. In 2015, Amaszonas purchased the Uruguayan airline BQB Líneas Aéreas, 5 days after the company shut down its operations due to a crisis that began in 2014. From May 4, the airline took over the routes operated by BQB before the closure of operations, which were

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 ...

and

Silvio Pettirossi International Airport Silvio Pettirossi International Airport is an international airport in Luque, Paraguay, which serves Paraguay's capital city, Asunción, and indirectly serves the nearby city of Clorinda, Formosa, in Argentina. The airport is named after Paragua ...

. In August 2021, Nella Linhas Aéreas, a Brazilian-based company registered in the U.S., acquired 100% control over Amaszonas. Nella announced a strategic partnership with

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

on July 29, 2021, expecting the delivery of a Boeing 737-500 in August, but it never happened. On August 8, 2023, Amaszonas temporarily suspended its operations after a dispute with its aircraft's lessor and the Bolivian government. By the following month, Nella ended up selling the airline to businessman Luis Divino. On November 19, 2023, the General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics announced that Amaszonas' air operator's certificate was suspended.

Destinations

By August 2023, Amaszonas offers scheduled flights to the following destinations:

Interline agreements

As of April 2014, Amaszonas had interline agreement with the following airlines: *

Air Europa Air Europa Líneas Aéreas, S.A.U., branded as Air Europa, is the third-largest Spain, Spanish airline after Iberia (airline), Iberia and Vueling. The airline is headquartered in Llucmajor, Mallorca, Spain; it has its main hub at Adolfo Suárez M ...

* Gol Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes By January 2022, only

maintained an E-Ticket interlineal agreement which allowed the airlines to use the KIU System ( Amadeus) to generate reservations in the domestic destination served by Amaszonas.

Fleet

The airline's fleet previously operated the following aircraft:

Incidents

*On July 10, 2001, at 16:47 local time, the two pilots of an Amaszonas Cessna 208 Caravan ( registered CP-2395) carrying eleven passengers had to execute an emergency landing on a hill near Viacha, six minutes into a flight from

to Rurrenabaque, due to an engine problem. When hitting the ground, the aircraft turned over and was destroyed, but all persons on board survived. *On January 21, 2005, at around 10:00 local time, another Amaszonas Caravan (registered CP-2412) crash-landed, this time near Colquiri. The aircraft with two pilots and ten passengers on board had been on a chartered flight from La Paz to

Sucre Sucre (; ) is the ''de jure'' capital city of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the sixth most populous city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of . This relatively high ...

, when it encountered atmospheric icing conditions, thus being unable to maintain height. There were no fatalities, but as a consequence, Amaszonas was stripped of the allowance to operate Caravans on passenger flights. One of the survivors of the crash was Bolivian businessman and politician Samuel Doria Medina. *On February 27, 2011, at 15:10 local time, an Amaszonas Fairchild Metro 23 (registered CP-2473) was substantially damaged when the left landing gear collapsed upon landing at El Alto International Airport. The aircraft carrying six passengers and two crew members had been on a scheduled flight from San Borja to Rurrenabaque when problems with the undercarriage occurred, leading the pilots to divert to

. All persons on board survived the ensuing crash landing. *On March 29, 2018, at 09:20 local time, an Amaszonas Fairchild Metro 23 (registered CP-2459) carrying 12 passengers and 2 crew suffered a bird strike on the right engine during takeoff at Riberalta Airport, causing the crew to abort takeoff resulting in a

runway excursion A runway excursion is a runway safety incident in which an aircraft makes an inappropriate exit from the runway. This happens mainly due to late landings or inappropriate runway choice. There are several types of runway excursions: * A depa ...

. The flight was bound for

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

, Bolivia. There were no fatalities and only minor injuries. At the time, the executive director of Bolivia's Directorate General of Civil Aeronautics stated that Amaszonas had previously reported 11 incidents in their history.

Notes

References

External links

Official website

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Linea Aerea Amaszonas Defunct airlines of Bolivia Airlines established in 1998 Airlines disestablished in 2023 Bolivian companies established in 1998 La Paz