Líneas Aéreas del Estado (LADE)
 

Role: Commercial Transport.

The unit was formed on 23.10.1944, when Líneas Aéreas del Sur Oeste (LASO) and Líneas Aéreas Nor Este (LANE) merged. LASO was established on 4.9.1940 with two Junkers Ju52 (164,165), while LANE was formed as Línea Aérea Militar al Sur on 24.1.1940 and was renamed on 20.9.1943 with Junkers Ju52, too.

Líneas Aéreas del Estado is the only Development Air Transport State Organization. It depends on the Argentine Air Force and it was created out of the desire and the need to undertake community activities that would bring together the most densely populated areas with those remote areas of territory which do not have fast and regular means of transport, thus creating new routes which would later be used by private companies.

Thus, on July 1940, this Passenger, Cargo and Mail Transport Airline was set up, covering the Palomar - Esquel route, with intermediate stopovers in Santa Rosa, Neuquén and San Carlos de Bariloche. The maiden flight was made on 4.9.1940, under the name of LASO (Líneas Aéreas del Sudoeste - Southwest Airlines). This maiden scheduled official flight was made with a Junkers Ju52, under the command of the former First Lieutenant Juan Francisco Fabri.

Later on, LANE (Líneas Aéreas del Noreste – Northeast Airlines) was created, first as Línea Aérea Militar al Sur on 24.1.1940 and renamed on 20.9.1943 with Junkers Ju52, too. LANE covered the Buenos Aires – Iguazú Waterfalls route. On 23.10.1944 the names LASO and LANE were replaced by the single name of LADE (Líneas Aéreas del Estado). The company continues to carry out the mission for which it was created by counting on its branches scattered all over our Patagonia. Despite the fact that LADE is dependent on the Argentine Air Force, it performs a public service. And, in order to offer such service, LADE applies its expertise in the areas of “air navigation”, maintenance, operating and managing support of both its military and civilian staff, as well as its transport airplanes. The routes covered by LADE and the special regional and promotional sense, which guides all its action, noticeably improved the communication possibilities. It also produced a very profound effect by breaking the isolation, since the single possibility of having a means of transport capable of linking the small towns with the big cities in few minutes creates a true integration awareness among the settlers of the Patagonian region.

LADE makes it easier for the settlers to travel from the mountain border to the coastline, by coordinating its flights and planes between the main centers and the remotest destinations. Thus, it links small towns with centers of major social, commercial and/or tourist importance, which are visited by international tourists. With departures from Aeroparque and stopovers in Mar del Plata, San Antonio Oeste and Puerto Madryn, going past Trelew, LADE links the most important centers of the country.

Comodoro Rivadavia “Capital City of the Black Gold” is the most important coastal Patagonian center. Patagonian towns like Rio Mayo, Alto Río Senguer, José de San Martín, El Maitén, and El Bolsón, among others, are linked from there. LADE, also, links Comodoro Rivadavia and Ushuaia, stopping over at the coastal cities of Puerto Deseado, San Julián, Santa Cruz, Río Gallegos, and Río Grande and the foothill cities of Perito Moreno, Gobernador Gregores, Río Turbio and Calafate.  During an important period of its existence and due to international agreements, LADE kept a stopover on our Malvinas Islands, “Puerto Argentino”. In 1972, the first flights with the Grumman Albatros were carried out, later on Fokker F-27 and F-28 flights continued twice a week, and in 1982, due to the South Atlantic conflict, LADE stopped providing air services.

Argentina is growing due to its irreversible southern expansion to which the Air Force is constantly contributing. LADE air routes are an irrefutable proof of it.

 

Air Bases:

Base	Duration
Base Aérea Militar El Palomar/Buenos Aires	1944 - 1965
Aeroparque Jorge Newbery/Buenos Aires	1965 - Present

Aircraft Used:

Type	Qty	Service	Example Serials
Junkers Ju52	3	1941 - 1944	164-166
Douglas DC-3	1	1943 - 1944	169
Dewoitine D.338	2	1943 - 1944	170,171
Dewoitine D.333	2	1943 - 1944	172,173
Junkers Ju52	5	1944 - 1950	T-164-T-168
Douglas DC-3	1	1944 - 1946	T-169
Dewoitine D.338	2	1944 - 1947	T-170,T-171
Dewoitine D.333	2	1944 - 1947	T-172,T-173
Douglas DC-3	1	1946 - 1969	T-16
Douglas C-54A Skymaster	3	1946 - 1970	T-42,TC-44,T-45
Douglas DC-4	4	1946 - 1966	T-43,T-44,T-46,T-47
Douglas C-47A Skytrain	1	1947 - 1959	T-48
Douglas C-54G Skymaster	1	1961 - 1965	TC-48
Douglas C-47A Skytrain	9	1966 - 1970	T-04,T-08-T-12,T-14,TC-19,TC-20
Douglas C-47-DL Skytrain	1	1966 - 1966	T-13
Douglas DC-6	5	1966 - 1973	T-51-T-53,TC-54,TC-55
Fokker F-27 Friendship	16	1968 - Present	T-41-T-45,TC-71-TC-79
de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter	12	1968 - Present	T-81-T-90
Fokker F-28 Fellowship	5	1975 - Present	T-50,TC-51-55
Lockheed L.100-30 Hercules	1	1982 - 1999	LV-APW
Boeing 707	5	1988 - 2004	LV-ISA,LV-ISD,LV-LGO,LV-LGP,LV-WXL
Saab 340B	4	2008 - Present	T-31-T-34

Unit Insignia:

 

Líneas Aéreas del Estado

References:

• Líneas Aéreas del Estado (LADE) (official homepage)
• Linea Ala - Líneas Aéreas del Estado (LADE)
• World Air Forces Directory 2009/2010 (Ian Carroll)