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PLUNA - A History of the Little Airline From Uruguay

Contributed by vivavivah
Friday, 06 January 2006
Page 1 of 2 Evolution On this article we will analize a little known airline in Uruguay, South America, little , but unique. Unique because of its size (tiny) and the fact is one of the only little airlines in here still surviving. We can remember for example LAP, from Paraguay, ecuatoriana, from Ecuador, etc…. all collapsed little airlines. The airline in fact is Pluna (Primeras Lineas Uruguayas de Navegacion Aerea, roughly translated as First Uruguayan Company of Air Navigation) According to the own Pluna webpage, the airline started operations on November 20, 1936 from the capital, Montevideo. It was started by Jorge and Alberto Marquez Vaeza. It chose rather than to operate across the River Plate to Buenos Aires, to focus on domestic destinations. By 1937, Pluna was a success story, operating two brand new de Havilland Dragonfly s, painted in brilliant red to the cities of Salto and Paysandu, from the capital, Montevideo. The airline briefly stopped operations because of the war, in 1943. Before that, on 1940, the DC 3 was aquired, together with de Havilland Herons, marking the retirement of the Dragonflies. Operations were extended to regional nations, and the government became the full owner of the airline. Vickers Viscounts were introduced on 1958 for service to Buenos Aires (Aeroparque), Asuncion, Porto Alegre, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. In 1969 a Boeing 737 200 was aquired, which started the jet age for Pluna. One year later, Pluna stopped all domestic flights, and became a pure international operator. Pluna furtherly acquired 727s, howewer, the aircraft weren’t suited well for Pluna, and didn’t lasted long. Pluna started long haul with a Boeing 707, leased from Aerolineas Argentinas, for service to Curacao and Madrid. In 1982 all the 727s were gone, replaced by 737s. The Madrid route was operated by Spanairs 767s through the 1990s, but soon, Varig found itself operating DC 10 aircraft on the Madrid route for Pluna. Varig In 1994 Varig purchased a 51 percent on Pluna, starting a black chapter for this company. Sources (Minister of Transport) indicate, now, that in those years of Varig involvement, the company was many times in the verge of bankruptcy, and the State had to inject over these years more than 70 million US dollars to keep Pluna flying. The same source indicated that Varig had absoloutely no interest on Pluna….. it was only interested in all the Pluna route rights. During the Varig era, a Boeing 767 300ER was acquired for flights to Madrid, as well as a Boeing 737 300, a Boeing 757 and an ATR 42. The fleet is now composed of: 1 B767, 1 B757, 1 B733, 3 B732 and 1 ATR 42.Five aircraft types in a seven aircraft fleet. Commonality? Also, a nice pretty new livery was introduced. << Start < Previous 1 2 Next > End >>