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ANC Alt



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Connor McMullin 2021

ANC Alt

Aerolineas Nacionales Colombianas was founded on August 15th 1928 in Bogota Colombia as Vias Areas Colombianas en el Exterior, or V.A.C.E., by Luis Peralta; he was a railroad tycoon who wanted to expand into the air market to build a large transport enterprise. The airline began with a Lockheed Vega registered C-NDG, flying from Bogota to Cali and Medellin. The airline bought two more Lockheed Vegas later in December for flights to Quito, Caracas, Bucaramanga, and Panama City. The airline did moderately well in it's first year, posting a slight loss but money was still strong and Peralta was determined.

In 1931, after some growth, adding more routes within Colombia and acquiring one additional Vega, the airline made moves to acquire four new Lockheed Model 9 Orion aircraft for a much needed boost in speed. These aircraft would replace the Lockheed Vega on the most important routes such as Bogota to Cali, Medellin, Cartagena, and Quito. The airline then saw a revitalized passenger base as journeys were made easier and cheaper. Luis Peralta was finally realizing his dream of a large travel enterprise, but much more was to come. The Airline would use its financial gains to purchase 6 new Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra. This allowed V.A.C.E. to expand its route tree to cross the Amazon and serve Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza, as well as cross the Andes to serve La Paz, Lima, and Santiago. The arrival of the Super Electra also afforded the airline to retire the older Lockheed Vega and the type would carry the airline through the second world war.

After the War in Europe ended, Peralta and V.A.C.E. spoke with executives at Douglas concerning surplus war materiel. Peralta negotiated a deal to take on 17 Douglas DC3 aircraft for the price of only 10. The airline used these aircraft to begin a fleet overhaul and modernization, eventually taking on 14 more of the type for a similar bargain. by the end of 1948 the fleet was converted from an all Lockheed fleet to and all Douglas fleet. V.A.C.E. would also purchase 8 Douglas DC4 aircraft after the DC3s began to prove themselves a valuable asset. The Douglas aircraft allowed the airline to reach all of Central America, with cornerstone routes such as Bogota to Mexico City, San Salvador, Tegucigalpa, Guadalajara, and Cancun; Medellin to Guatemala City, Mexico City, and Cabo San Lucas; and Cali to Monterrey, San Juan and Kingston. During this period, the airline suffered through its first of many incidents. On May 7 1949 Founder Luis Peralta died of a brain aneurism. He was 64 years old. Mr. Peralta would be succeeded by his son, Domingo Peralta.
The very next year V.A.C.E. would face another incident involving a Douglas DC3. on October 7 1950 Douglas DC-3 registered HK-0030A Was flying to Sao Paulo at 22000 feet over the Amazon rainforest when it suffered a critical electrical systems failure, making the instruments and navigation equipment unusable. The aircraft would circle to attempt to gain its bearings but that would prove to be a fatal mistake. With nothing to guide the three flight-crew members but dense jungle, they quickly became disoriented. They would run out of fuel and crash in the Amazon. Upon discovery of the wreckage it was found that only four of the 29 aboard were killed in the crash from the propeller blades shooting through the cabin. The rest would die from either starvation, exposure, or predation.

This accident wouldn't stay with the airline however as the faults were quickly identified upon recovery of the aircraft, and the victim's families received substantial settlements. The airline would enter the 1950s as Colombia's number one airline, followed close behind by Colombianca. V.A.C.E. would continue expanding its routes primarily to the United States, as postwar America was experiencing never before seen prosperity and wealth, with many looking to travel to an exotic South American destination. The airline began to make it happen. Firstly the airline began to order 25 DC 6 and 14 Lockheed 1049 Super Constellations, marking the return of Lockheed to the fleet after a 12 year absence. This allowed the fleet to modernize and retire the DC3 and DC4. The last DC3 flight occurred on June 12 1958 from Bogota to Belmopan. Colombianca was not too far behind however. They boasted a fleet of Martin 4-0-4 and Lockheed L188 Electra aircraft and reached destinations in the U.S. such as Houston, Dallas, Miami, and Washington Dulles. Colombianca made a fatal error in their expansion however. They failed to bolster routes which had proven to be profitable and started to hemorrhage money from their rapid expansion into the U.S. to beat V.A.C.E. The Colombian government, eager to not lose the boom in tourism the new U.S. routes had gotten, orchestrated a merger to form a new unified flag carrier of the nation. On February 26th 1958 it was announced that V.A.C.E. and Colombianca would merge to form ANC, or Aerolineas Nacionales Colombianas.

The airline would enter the 1960s with a combined fleet and bolstered route network with Colombianca doing most of the heavy lifting with acquiring routes to U.S. cities like Los Angeles, Miami and Dallas. The airline would also be assisted by government money through the merger and permitted the acquisition of 18 Boeing 720B and 12 Douglas DC8-20 aircraft for longer range routes and to begin the retirement of the outdated DC6. The airline independently moved to bid on orders for the new Boeing 727 and 747, marking an initiative in the airline to move ahead of the curve and severely modernize the fleet in advance to reduce the costly overhauls that marked the beginning of the previous decades. ANC would take deliveries of its new aircraft and retire the Martin 4-0-4 and L1049 Super Constellation. Before all aircraft could be retired however, disaster struck again. on March 19 1962 Martin 4-0-4 registered HK-0102L was flying from Medellin to Lima when the pilot decided to take matters into his own hands. Three hours prior to the flight, he received news that he would be losing his job the next day. The pilot in question, then First Officer, Carlos Calineros, took the controls of the aircraft and nose dived the plane into the Peruvian Andes. All 30 aboard perished. The airline did not handle this incident well and infamously tried to deny the claims that it was planning on firing Calineros to no avail. ANC was forced to pay a much larger settlement than initially asked. As a result the board of trustees relived Domingo Peralta from his position as airline CEO. His cousin, Tomas Peralta would take the reins of the airline for the next six years.

The rest of the 1960s saw further growth of the airline now having a mostly jet fleet of Boeing 720, 727 and 737, Douglas DC8, and Lockheed 188 Electra aircraft in service with the Boeing 747 soon to enter at the end of the decade. ANC had successfully integrated and was focused on growth and development. The airline began focusing further south finally opening rotes to Buenos Aires and Porto Alegre from each of its three hubs with the Boeing 720 and 727. ANC began rapid growth in the Caribbean with the 737-200 with very successful routes to Havana, San Juan and Nassau. All in all, very few incidents occurred with a record low 10 total emergencies through the whole decade, only the aforementioned crash of the Martin 4-0-4 had any fatalities. On January 17 1968, Tomas Peralta announced his retirement from the airline at the age of 62. This would be the last time one of the Peralta family members was at the head of the airline as CEO, though several family members remain on the board of trustees to this day. The new acting CEO would be Herman Cabello, the previous CFO.

ANC entered a new era in 1970 when it finally received its first Boeing 747 and began flying them between Bogota and Madrid, providing a bedrock route that brings in nearly 8 billion USD per year today. The airline could finally cross the Atlantic and with the exposure to the European market saw interest in a new European product. Then upstart Airbus Industrie had a new airplane it was desperate to sell and ANC liked it. The new airframe could be used to substitute for the 720 and then allow the airline to retire the Lockheed 188 aircraft. ANC placed an order for 18 Airbus A300 Aircraft and received their first on August 30 1973. It was also around this time that ANC began its first notable advertising campaign. It asked "Where will you adventure with ANC?" and was used to promote new routes to great effect, allowing the Colombian flag carrier to become one of the premier connectors of Europe to Latin America. Due to administrative restrictions on twin engine operations over water, the A300 would be used primarily for North American destinations, moving the 720 fleet to South America only. the DC8 still flew in Central America and southern North American destinations while the 737 stayed a mainstay in the Caribbean and western South America.
The 1970s oil crisis would deeply affect ANC. The airline would cancel its orders for the 747-200 and would move to place orders for the new Boeing 757 and 767 to replace the 720 and 727; and would also look to the newer variants of the 737 series, the 737-300 and 500. These more fuel efficient aircraft would afford lower costs for the airline and let ANC get back on track to flying its more profitable long distance routes such as to Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Denver. Later, in 1979 the airline would place orders for the MD82 and return to Lockheed to order their brand new L-1011 in an effort to phase out the thirsty 747. These aircraft orders were made without any money to do so and the airline had to appeal heavily to investors to avoid bankruptcy. The decade would fortunately be an unprecedented time of safety in the airline having no fatal accidents. This safety record is one of the main reasons the airline survived the decade. A new CEO would be instated to try to bring the airline back from the brink, Samuel Garcia. However, there were some under the table deals made in the later years of the 1970s that would eventually come back to haunt the airline.

ANC began receiving their L-1011-500s on March 6 1981 and shortly after decided to go public on the Bogota Stock Exchange with the symbol ANC. It was also in this year that ANC started to focus on their route infrastructure and begin catering to small regional destinations. the promise of the Fokker F-100 allowed them to do so with reasonable capacity. ANC placed orders and barely lost their bid to become the launch customer of the type. Expanding into the regional market introduced competition however. SurAvia, a regional airline operating a small fleet of mostly turboprop aircraft was serving this niche and was growing steadily. Their route network was extensive, serving areas deep in the Colombian Jungle as well as in Brazil. ANC made a move to acquire the airline and incorporate it to operate as a regional subsidiary. SurAvia at first refused but after an offer of 1.2 billion USD and being placed on the ANC board of trustees, CEO of SurAvia, Marc Santos agreed to the deal. SurAvia would be incorporated under ANC Holdings Inc. and would fly under the ARC brand.

It is worth elaborating on the background for a moment here. Within SurAvia's ranks were members of the infamous Medellin Cartel. They helped funnel money into the airline in exchange for their pilots to smuggle cocaine into the United States via Miami and New Orleans. When ANC began to have an interest in the airline, CEO Samuel Garcia began receiving contacts from the cartel. A previous arrangement had been made back in 1978 to not shed light on any of the cartel's actions and to grease airport security to let certain items slip onto aircraft unnoticed. This new proposition of acquiring SurAvia was in a violation of the terms that the airline wouldn't meddle with the cartel's efforts to export. A new agreement was established after a sum of 4.5 billion USD was paid out and SurAvia pilots would still fly the smuggling routes.

The mid 1980s were another time of great prosperity for ANC after a rough end to the 1970s. They were able to afford to keep the 747 in service as well as use their new 767s and older A300s for overseas routes thanks to the new ETOPS certifications. This led to even more routes in Europe and new routes to Africa, adding an entirely new continent to the route network with the debut of Bogota to Cape Town, Lagos, and Brazzaville. The new L1011 would replace the A300 routes to North America, with some serving European destinations such as Dublin and Lisbon. The new MD80s also allowed the airline to retire its 737-200s. Airbus was also getting clever. Airbus executives used tactics to convince CEO Samuel Garcia to drop ANC's orders of the 737-300 and -500 in favor of the new Airbus A320. ANC would order 20 Airbus A320-200 aircraft from Airbus and would never look back to the 737. The late 80s also featured another successful marketing campaign. The "Where are you going?" campaign brought in millions of travelers looking to find somewhere new to adventure.
There safety record for this decade was not stellar however. Integrating new aircraft types led to some issues concerning pilot training. An MD82 registered HK-0488R crashed while trying to land in Toncontin on September 14 1983. It was discovered that the pilot's training was rushed and they did not have the proper experience to fly the challenging approach. 95 people of the 145 on board were killed, including the two pilots. There was another incident on January 31 1984, this time concerning a 757-200 registered HK-1539B. It went down over Costa Rica after the aircraft ran out of fuel. The cause was attributed to the pilots inputting the number incorrectly as the aircraft displayed fuel quantity in kilograms when the pilots had been trained to use pounds. 94 of the 182 people on board were killed.

It was also during this decade that had the worst aviation accident in Colombian History. Aerolineas Nacionales Colombianas Flight 489, a 767-200 from Bogota to Barcelona was targeted by the Medellin cartel. On November 27 1989 then presidential candidate, Cesar Gaviria Trujillo, was expected to be flying to Barcelona for a vacation. A plot to plant a bomb was executed, splitting the aircraft in half over the Atlantic Ocean. All 178 aboard perished. Trujillo was not on the flight, but would have been flying two days later. This incident led to several troubles in the airline as it was exposed that ANC had been working with the cartel to smuggle cocaine into the United States. The airline changed CEOs 4 times, with none lasting more than 5 months. CEO Samuel Garcia was also forced to pay back 6.3 billion USD in bribes and was arrested. The airline lost nearly 900 million USD in lost ticket sales, and the Colombian government had serious discussions to nationalize the brand. In the end, it would be settled that ANC would still be a privately owned airline, but would be under an extremely watchful eye. Trujillo would later win the election.

ANC would enter the 1990s under the leadership of Emmanuel Sanchez, and would acquire new aircraft as well. The new Boeing 777, 767-300, and the Airbus A330 would be the new additions to the ANC fleet, allowing the airline to finally cross the Pacific to serve Tokyo, Beijing, Hing Kong, and Seoul. The airline would retire its last 720 in 1990 and last 747 in 1992. They would fly one final time on April 3 1990, and on October 31 1992 respectively. With the Medellin cartel now on its decline, the airline managed to stay away from trouble. Another Colombian carrier, Aero Colombia, was on the brink of bankruptcy after continued mismanagement stemming from the oil crisis 20 years prior. ANC decided to buy the airline to regain lost market share and to increase the fleet size. The 1990s was a rather uneventful decade as far as accidents go, with only one major incident. On May 6th 1994, an Airbus A320 registered HK-2540H incurred a hydraulic failure from an improperly sealed valve and was able to safely land in Cali. The decade would close with a farewell to the L1011 in July on 1999.

The year 2000 was an important year for the airline. This is when they established their frequent flyer program, Condor Miles. this allowed travelers a benefit in returning to the airline and saw a massive spike in numbers from 1.4 million per year to nearly 4 million passengers per year. ANC would announce its retirement of the A300 and the last A300 would depart from Bogota to Santiago on June 14 2000. September 2001 would affect ANC but not as much as other airlines. Routes to the United States and Europe would suffer but most domestic routes and routes within South America would only see a slight decrease in capacity. 2003 would see the retirement of the Fokker F100, as regional routes were being better served by the newer Embraer E175 and 190 aircraft. The last F-100 would depart from Cali to Quito on March 14 2003. 2006 would see a new notable advertisement campaign. The "ANC will take you there" campaign was a marketing success and really brought notoriety to the airline. in 2006 the airline placed orders for the brand new 787-8.

The 2010s saw a large influx of new aircraft types. Aircraft such as the 787, A330 NEO, A350 and A330 NEO would enter service with ANC during the decade. It would also see the retirement of the MD82, 767-200, and 757-200 in 2015, 2010, and 2012 respectively. On July 20 2016 CEO Emmanuel Sanchez announced his retirement at the age of 57. The new CEO would be Oscar Lopez, a prominent figure within aviation in Spain, and is still the acting CEO. The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has affected the airline greatly. It has reduced service to Asia and to Europe in response to travel restrictions and is just now starting to rebound. ANC was forced to furlough ten percent of its pilot workforce and is facing some rumors of strikes to avoid further furlough.

Much has happened in the history of ANC, and there is much more to come as the airline turns 94 this year.