1980s: Plummeting reputation and hardships

In July 1981, Aviaperú was largely privatised with the government keeping a 20% minority share, and a merger was mooted with its private rival Faucett Perú. As a preparatory measure, redundancies in the route networks of the two airlines were removed, so Aviaperú had to suspend flights to several destinations including Los Angeles, New York, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo. As no further steps were taken towards merging the two airlines, flights to previously terminated destinations recommenced in 1983. Because of disagreements over the granting of fifth freedom rights after the expiration of a bilateral air traffic agreement between Peru and the United States on 11 November that year, all flights between the two countries were suspended from May 1984 until mid-1985. This would spell doom for the important Lima-Miami route.

The 1980s were not kind to Peru. When the military government allowed elections in 1980 it also had the unintended consequence of unleashing the Maoist political group Shining Path, which began a guerilla war funded by the proceeds of drug cultivation. When the military intervened, this conflict quickly escalated into a full-blown civil war with atrocities on both sides. These were not the nation's only problems as economic mismanagement along with a powerful El Niño in 1982-83 combined to cause drought, flooding, and rampant hyperinflation.

By June 1985 Aviaperú's active fleet consisted of three Fokker F28 Fellowships, three Boeing 727-100s, one Douglas DC-8-52, and four Douglas DC-8-62s. Considering the 1973-built F28s were the newest aircraft in the fleet, it became clear that money was in short supply. The only new addition to the fleet during the second half of the 1980s was a fifth DC-8-62 (pictured here) which replaced the remaining DC-8-52. This aircraft, which became OB-R-1323, was a 1968-built ex-Japan Airlines aircraft repainted in Aviaperú colours.

The overall fleet size did not increase, however. On 25 October 1988, Aviaperú lost one of its trusty F28s (OB-R-1020) in a fatal accident when she failed to get properly airborne from Juliaca and crashed a few kilometres beyond the runway, killing twelve of the 69 passengers on board. The crash worsened Aviaperú's already negative reputation with travellers and would further excavate the airline's existential financial difficulties as the decade came to a close.

Registration: OB-R-1323
Aircraft name: Siula Grande