Aerolíneas Argentinas

Early years to privatisation

The history of the airline began in 1929, when Compagnie Générale Aéropostale (Aéropostale) started airmail operations between Buenos Aires and Asunción using Laté-25 equipment, later expanding its network to cities located in Patagonia. Many French pilots (including aviator and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry) flew for the company in its beginnings. Argentine personnel replaced the Frenchmen as they gradually withdrew from the airline, and shortly after Aéropostale's Argentine subsidiary Aeroposta Argentina was formed. In 1947, this airline became a mixed-stock company in which the government had a 20% stake and private investors held the balance. As Aeroposta expanded its network southwards and incorporated the Douglas DC-3 into its fleet, another three mixed-stock companies were in operation at the time: ALFA mainly operated flying boats northwards to the Mesopotamia, FAMA operated overseas services with DC-4s as its mainstay equipment, and ZONDA was mainly concerned with operations in the northwest region. These carriers became unprofitable and President Juan Perón had them amalgamated into a single state-owned company on 14 May 1949. The state holding was officially rebranded as Aerolíneas Argentinas-Empresa del Estado. The four companies comprising the state holding ceased independent operations on 31 December 1949.

Aerolíneas Argentinas started operations on its own on 7 December 1950. In February 1950, almost 10 months prior to the start of operations, five new Convairs were already acquired. As early as 1950, the Douglas DC-6 was added to the fleet and was used to launch a weekly Buenos Aires–Rio de Janeiro–Natal–Dakar–Lisbon–Paris–Frankfurt flight in late 1950. Soon afterwards, Douglas DC-4s joined the fleet and services were inaugurated to Santiago, Lima, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and São Paulo. By March 1953, the airline's network was 35,000 miles (56,000 km) long, flown with DC-3s, DC-4s, DC-6s, Convair-Liner 240s, and Short Sandringhams. The company carried 291,988 passengers in 1954, and 327,808 in 1955. On 8 February 1957, it was reported that Aerolíneas Argentinas had ordered ten F-27 Friendships. The Comet had begun commercial jet services in the 1950s, and the carrier once again set the pace among the South American airlines, when Aerolíneas' president A. Cdre. Juan José Güiraldes persuaded Argentina's President Arturo Frondizi to buy six of them, becoming the first overseas airline in ordering the type. The first of these aircraft departed Hatfield Aerodrome on 2 March 1959; over 18 hours were needed for it to cover a distance of 7,075 miles (11,386 km) between Hatfield and Buenos Aires. On 7 March, she was christened Las Tres Marías by Frondizi's wife Elena Faggionato at Ezeiza Airport. Comet flights to New York City began in May 1959.

In the early 1960s, the fleet consisted of four Comet 4s, four Convair 240s, 15 DC-3s, six DC-4s, five DC-6s and six Sandringhams, whereas the ten F-27s ordered in 1957 were still pending delivery. The 1960s saw the carrier ordering the Avro 748 turboprop airliner. The aircraft started services on 15 February 1962 between Buenos Aires and Punta del Este. The first flight for the Caravelle in Aerolíneas colours was Buenos Aires–Santiago on 1 April 1962. In April 1965, the carrier had 5,960 employees, and the fleet consisted of three Comet 4s, one Comet 4C, three Caravelles, 12 DC-3s (three of them freighters), six DC-4s, three DC-6s and 12 HS-748s. In 1966, loans granted by the Ex-Im Bank and Boeing permitted the purchase of a number of Boeing 707-320Bs in a deal worth US$37,000,000 (equivalent to $367,153,846 in 2025). In November 1969, the carrier entered a pool agreement with Lufthansa covering services between Germany and Argentina.

By March 1970, Aerolíneas Argentinas had a fleet of six Boeing 707s that served routes to Europe and the United States, three Caravelles 6Rs and four Comet 4s that flew regional services, and 12 HS-748s that flew domestically, whereas six Boeing 737-200s were on order. During the decade, the fleet had the arrival of three different aircraft types from Boeing: the 727—the first example entered the fleet in December 1977 on lease from Hughes AirWest and three more were ordered directly from Boeing — the 737, and the 747. In the mid-1970s, the introduction of Fokker F-28 prompted the retirement of the last HS-748s, making the company the first South American airline with an all-jet fleet. Frankfurt, Madrid, and Rome became the first destinations to be served with the new 747s, starting January 1977. Another milestone for the company took place in June 1980, with the first south polar scheduled service, linking Buenos Aires with Hong Kong via Auckland. Late that year, a second-hand Boeing 747SP was acquired from Braniff for US$51,000,000 (equivalent to $199,283,118 in 2025).

The airline was assigned by law the monopoly of international operations from Argentina in 1971. This meant no other Argentine airline was able to operate international flights, let alone the already created Austral. The carrier therefore became the flag carrier of the country.