ARCO Aerolíneas Colonia S.A.

ARCO Aerolíneas Colonia S.A. was founded in 1957. Principal shareholder was the uruguayan bus company ONDA and began operations in 1964 with a fleet of four Curtiss C-46 purchased from Compania Aeronáutica Uruguaya S.A. (CAUSA). This planes 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.

Curtiss C-46A operated by ARCO from 1964 to the early 70s

The airline was intended to concentrate his operations in the Colonia del Sacramento-Buenos Aires Aeroparque Jorge Newbery(Code ICAO SABE)route.This route is a very short one of only 35 miles across the River Plate. ARCO Aerolíneas Colonia flights were operated under code KO(IATA)and AKO(ICAO).

This route was the only operated by the airline in its 30 years of life.

The airline hub or base of operations was stablished at the Colonia Airport -Laguna de los Patos(Code ICAO SUCA)at 17km out of town along route 1 and was connected with the bus service by ONDA from Montevideo main office at Plaza Cagancha. ARCO Aerolíneas Colonia could offer a much lower fare than Aerolíneas Argentinas and PLUNA flying directly between Colonia and Buenos Aires.

By the early 1970s three Convair CV-240 were purchased to replace the C-46s(CX-BHC, CX-BHS and CX-BHT).One of the CV-240s, CX-BHS was written-off the 17th Jun 1973 after a bad landing at Colonia.The Convair touched down 12 meters short of the runway 29 threshold. His left main landing gear struck a threshold light, causing the light to separate anf then swerved off the the runway, causing the left main gear to collapse.

The CV-240 were replaced by two Convair CV-600, one delivered in 1976 and the other in 1981.

Convair CV-600 CX-BJL operated by ARCO from 1976

ARCO Aerolíneas Colonia ceased operations in December 1986 and was declared bankrupt in the spring 1987.ONDA bus services ceased operations by June 1991.

The route of ARCO Aerolíneas Colonia between Colonia and Buenos Aires, was taked then by Aero Uruguay.

Fleet

1964

CX-AYR C-46F-CU 22403 ex N1674M Saturn AW, ex CAUSA

CX-AZS C-46A-CU 30393 ex N10428 Imperial AL, ex CAUSA

CX-BAH C-46F-CU 22531 ex N9900F, ex CAUSA, to Lanica AN-BRX

CX-BAM C-46F-CU 22392 ex N67942 Pacific Air Transport,ex CAUSA

1970

CX-BHC CV-240-0 33 ex N21133 Private users in USA Stored Colonia

CX-BHS CV-240-0 20 ex N21120 Private users in USA Destroyed 17-06-73 Colonia

CX-BHT CV-240-0 18 ex LV-JTI Compañia Argentina de Aero Taxi Zothner Destroyed 19-02-76 Colonia

1976-1981

CX-BJL CV-600 92 ex N123SC Private users in USA, derelict Colonia

CX-BOJ CV-600 13 ex N94207 Bar Harbor AL / Eastern Express Stored Colonia

References

Latin Glory.Airlines of Latin América,Airlife Publishing Ltd, 1995 ISBN 1 85310 431 0

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