LADE

LADE - Líneas Aéreas del Estado (English: State Air Lines) is an airline based in Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina. It is a state owned airline operated by the Argentine Air Force and provides domestic scheduled services mainly in Patagonia.

Not to be confused with Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer or La Academia de Esperanza.

LADE - Líneas Aéreas del Estado
IATA ICAO Callsign
5U LDE LADE
FoundedSeptember 1940 (1940-09)
Fleet size4
Destinations30
HeadquartersEl Palomar, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Websitelade.com.ar

History

The airline was established as an arm of the Argentine Air Force in September 1940 (1940-09) to undertake non-profitable routes to remote areas.[1] It was initially known as Líneas Aéreas Suroeste and consolidated under the present title in 1945 with another air force branch, Líneas Aéreas Noreste.[2] By April 1960 (1960-04), DC-3s, DC-4s and Vikings made up LADE's fleet.[1]

An Argentine Air Force Fokker F-27. As of May 2013 LADE did not have aircraft of its own; all the equipment was provided by the Argentine Air Force.[3]

At March 1970, LADE had 150 employees and its fleet consisted of 14 DC-3s, two DC-4s, three DC-6s and six Twin Otters.[4] The carrier started regular flights between Comodoro Rivadavia and the Falkland Islands in 1972.[5][6] The Comodoro Rivadavia–Port Stanley run was initially operated with F.27 equipment. The limited length of the runway at Port Stanley Airport resulted in weight regulations to the aircraft operating the route, which restricted the number of carried passengers to a maximum of 22 per flight, along with a reduced volume of mail and freight.[7] The service was discontinued in 1982,[5] following the Falklands War.[8][9]

At July 1980 (1980-07), the airline had a fleet of 11 F.27s —five -600s and six -400Ms—, five Fokker F.28-1000Cs and seven Twin Otters.[6] Ten years later, at March 1990 (1990-03), the fleet had grown to include five Fokker F.28-1000Cs, 13 F.27s —six -400Ms, two -500s and five -600s—, one Lockheed L-100-30 and seven Twin Otters.[10] At March 2004, LADE served a comprehensive domestic network that included scheduled services to Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Comodoro Rivadavia, El Calafate, El Palomar, Gobernador Gregores, Lago Argentino, Mar del Plata, Miramar, Neuquén, Paraná, Puerto Madryn, Río Gallegos, Río Grande, San Antonio Oeste, San Carlos de Bariloche, San Martín de los Andes, Trelew, Ushuaia and Viedma. The fleet at this time consisted of Twin Otters, Fokker F27s, Fokker F28s and one Lockheed L-100-30 Hercules.[11] The acquisition of four Saab 340s for the replacement of four Fokker F27s was announced in November 2007 (2007-11) in a deal worth US$34 million.[12] The first of these aircraft entered the fleet in December 2008 (2008-12);[13] the other three were incorporated in August 2009 (2009-08).[14]

Destinations
Branch office in Trelew

LADE–Líneas Aéreas del Estado operates services to the following domestic scheduled destinations (at June 2019):[15]

Fleet
Saab 340
Fokker F-28

The LADE - Líneas Aéreas del Estado fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of April 2021)

Those aircraft are for regular flights.

The air force cargo fleet is leased by LADE, consisting of:

The two surviving Lockheed Martin C-130B Hercules were retired by the air force in September and December 2011 respectively, while the sole Lockheed Martin L-100-30 Hercules has been inoperative since early 2010.

There is a Presidential Fleet which is normally not assigned to LADE:

The rest of the fleet is inoperative:

As of June 2012, the LADE schedules show that nearly all flights are operated by Saab 340 aircraft, with the Fokker F28 fleet flying exclusively for the air force. Fokker F27s were withdrawn from the LADE schedules in April 2009, although they have since been known to sporadically operate LADE flights now and again.

Accidents and incidents
Date Location Aircraft Tail number Aircraft damage Fatalities Description Refs
16 June 1995 HaitiJeremie F-27-400M TC-73 W/O 0 Collapse of left main landing gear on touchdown at Jeremie Airport. The aircraft ran off the runway and crashed into a building. [16]
8 November 1995 ArgentinaVilla Dolores F-27-400M TC-72 W/O 53/53 Crashed into mountainous terrain in bad weather while flying the last leg of a domestic non-scheduled Comodoro Rivadavia–Villa Reynolds–Córdoba. [17]

See also

References
  1. "Airlines of the World – Lineas Aereas del Estado—LADE". Flight. 77 (2665): 503. 8 April 1960. Archived from the original on 1 September 2013.
  2. "Directory: World Airlines". Flight International. 3 April 2007. p. 104.
  3. "LADE, la hermana pobre de Aerolíneas se achica por falta de presupuesto". La Nación. 21 May 2013. Archived from the original on 30 December 2013.
  4. "World airlines 1970–Lineas Aereas del Estado (LADE)". Flight International. 97 (3185): 489. 26 March 1970. Archived from the original on 18 August 2017.
  5. "El nuevo laborismo preocupa en Malvinas". La Nación. 1 June 1997. Archived from the original on 29 December 2013.
  6. "World airline directory". Flight International. 118 (3716): 326. 26 July 1980. ISSN 0015-3710. Archived from the original on 20 October 2013.
  7. "Air transport – Falkland Air service". Flight International. 3331 (103): 50. 11 January 1973. Archived from the original on 14 December 2013.
  8. Centeno, Andrea (13 January 1999). "Di Tella propondrá a Cook que se reanuden los vuelos a las Malvinas". La Nación. Archived from the original on 31 August 2014.
  9. "Los consejeros de las islas desechan cualquier acercamiento". La Nación. 22 November 1997. Archived from the original on 29 December 2013.
  10. "Lineas Aereas del Estado (LADE)". Flight International. 137 (4207): 105. 14–20 March 1990. Archived from the original on 30 December 2013.
  11. "Directory: world airlines—LADE–Lineas Aereas del Estado". Flight International. 165 (4926): 97. 23–29 March 2004. Archived from the original on 4 November 2018.
  12. Hoyle, Craig (23 November 2007). "Argentinian air force to acquire four Saab 340 transports". FlightGlobal. Flight International. Archived from the original on 2 September 2013.
  13. "Nuevo avión para unir ciudades de la Patagonia" [A new aircraft to link cities in the Patagonia]. La Nación (in Spanish). 6 December 2008. Archived from the original on 30 December 2013.
  14. "Breves" [Brevities]. La Nación (in Spanish). 22 August 2009. Archived from the original on 30 December 2013.
  15. "LADE destinations". lade.com.ar. LADE. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
  16. Accident description for TC-73 at the Aviation Safety Network
  17. Accident description for TC-72 at the Aviation Safety Network
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