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On the 3rd May 1967 Austral Compañia Argentina de Transportes Aéreos S.A placed the first South American order for British Aircraft Corporation One-Eleven airliners. The initial order was for four Series 420ELs both for its own use and for Aerotransportes Litoral Argentino SA – ALA with an option on two longer fuselage Series 500 aircraft. At the time the order was placed Austral had a 30% holding in ALA and the routes of the two companies had been integrated by the time the One-Elevens came on strength although marketing themselves as two separate companies. ALA specialised in destinations to the north and northwest of the country and additionally flew international routes to Antofagasta in Chile and to Asuncion in Paraguay using the ‘SG’ flight prefix. Austral specialised in routes to the south and west of the country and also flew international schedules to Montevideo in Uruguay using the ‘AU’ flight prefix.

The aircraft were delivered in a single class 74 seat configuration, two of which went to Austral in October and November 1967 (LV-IZR and LV-IZS) one to ALA in September 1968 (LV-JGX) and a third to Austral in December 1968 (LV-JGY) all in their own company colour schemes. ALA also leased a Series 413FA registered G-AWGG from late November 1968, initially for crew training in the United Kingdom, until it was returned to BAC at Hurn in mid April 1969. Austral inaugurated service with the type on 24rd October 1967 with schedules linking Buenos Aires - Aeroparque with Bahía Blanca, Comodoro Rivadavia, Córdoba, Mar del Plata, Mendoza, Mercedes, Neuquén, Río Gallegos and San Carlos de Bariloche. ALA introduced the type into service on 29th September 1968 and gradually introduced the type onto schedules from Buenos Aires to Corrientes, Formosa, Paraná, Posadas, Resistencia, Rosario, Salta, San Juan, Santa Fe and Tucumán with Salta being connected with Antofagasta in Chile. Asuncion was also served from Aeroparque via Resistencia with the One-Elevens.

On 18th November 1969 a new order was announced for three Series 521FHs. These stretched One-Elevens, two of which went to Austral (LV-JNR and LV-JNS) and one to ALA (LV-JNT) all delivered in November 1969, were fitted out in a 104 seat single class configuration. Austral introduced the new type into service 27th November 1969 with ALA following on 24th December 1969. During 1970 Austral operated a twice weekly service for LAN - Chile from San Carlos de Bariloche to Puerto Montt. One of the Austral Series 500s (LV-JNR) was leased to Sadia SA Transportes Aéreos as PP-SDP from mid September 1970. It was initially used for crew training in readiness for this Brazilian company taking delivery of its own new One-Eleven 500s from October 1970. This same aircraft was returned in early January 1971 but was leased to Court Line Aviation in the United Kingdom as G-AYXB for their peak summer operations from mid April to mid October 1971.

On 23rd June 1971 Austral and ALA completely merged into a new company called Austral Lineas Aéreas S.A. using the flight prefix ‘AU’. At the same time the new company introduced a new colour scheme to their One-Eleven fleet. This was gradually applied to the aircraft between 1971 and 1973. Aircraft were painted in one of four basic colour schemes. These comprised bands of six shades starting with the lightest on the top to the darkest at the bottom of the cheat line. Colours were pink to red, pink to magenta, mustard yellow through various greens to dark green and oranges to red.

Following the loss of LV-JNR in an emergency landing at Bahía Blanca in early December 1973, a Series 509EW was firstly leased from British Caledonian Airways Ltd in early January 1974 before it was purchased outright in early October 1975.

In 1974 Austral’s colour schemes applied to the One-Elevens was changed to what was arguably the most pleasing of all the colours that the airline used. Four basic colours were used in bands of three shades broken by thin white lines. These were desert light brown/medium brown/dark brown, light green/medium green/dark green, yellow/orange/red and celeste/medium blue/dark blue.

In January 1975 a Series 529FR was obtained from Phoenix Airways of Switzerland and this was initially operated in the former owners basic gold and white colour scheme with Austral titles and fin logo. Two Series 401AKs were leased from the USA at the end of December 1976 and initially operated in an overall white colour scheme. They remained in service until February and March 1979. In January 1978 and April 1979 two used Series 518FGs were obtained from the British Aircraft Corporation. The final purchase of One-Elevens was three aircraft from Hapag-Lloyd Flugesselschaft in November 1979 and January 1980. These last three were a Series 515FB, a Series 524FF and a Series 528FL.

Soon after the merger of ALA and Austral all international scheduled services were suspended in favour of Aerolineas Argentinas under a government directive but numerous additional domestic destinations were added to the One-Eleven network over the years. These included Esquel, Goya, Iguazu, Jujuy, Reconquista, Rio Grande, Rio Cuarto, San Luis, San Martin, Santa Rosa, Santiago del Estero, Trelew, Viedma and Villa Mercedees. The aircraft were also operated on charter flights throughout Argentina. International charters included flights to Antofagasta, Punta Arenas, Puerto Montt and Santiago in Chile, to Asuncion in Paraguay, to Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia, Florianapólis, Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in Brazil and to Montevideo in Uruguay.

In 1978 a “New Look 78” colour scheme was introduced in which all the aircraft were painted in the same colours. This was the final Austral colour scheme used on their One-Eleven fleet and comprised red and black cheatlines with a white top and large ‘AU’ on the forward fuselage.

During 1981 the last of the Series 400 aircraft was withdrawn but it was to be another thirteen years before the last of the Series 500s was retired. At the beginning of October 1990 LV-JNT was leased to Linea Aérea del Cobre SA – LADECO and this continued for nearly a month. During 1993 replacement of the Series 500s began but the last scheduled service was not flown with the type until 23rd October 1994 when LV-MEX flew into Aeroparque from Chapelco, so ending twenty-seven years of operations with the type to the very day. However, a new but very short lived subsidiary was formed in the shape of Air Patagonia. This company was planned to operate the parent company's Srs.518FG (LV-MEX) on freight, small package and mail services both within Argentina and to nearby South American countries. The aircraft was repainted in the new company’s colour scheme and delivered on 4th August 1995. After initial crew training, only one revenue charter flight was flown from Aeroparque to Ezeiza, Resistencia, Jujuy and Salta carrying newspapers on 20th January 1996 before returning to Aeroparque. The aircraft was then put in store.

Over the years the company and its predecessors had flown 317,789 hours with its Series 500 aircraft and 111,215 hours with its Series 400s amounting to a grand total of 429,004 hours.

The aircraft were maintained in the hangars at the company’s engineering base to the south of Aeroparque’s runway at Buenos Aires.

At the end of One-Eleven operations only two One-Elevens were still in use, the others having been withdrawn earlier. These last two aircraft were sold to European Aviation Ltd in the United Kingdom but were destined to never see further service after their arrival in the UK. Most of the other aircraft were reduced to spares but two were sold to the Fuerza Aérea Argentina and ferried to Morón Airport in the western suburbs of Buenos Aires on 4th October and 1st December 1993. One of these (LV-MZM) is preserved at the INAC (Instituto Nacional de Aviación Civil) for the use of C.I.A.T.A. (Centro de Instrucción de Aeronavegantes y Técnicos Aeronáuticos) where it is used for training purposes and the other (LV-OAX) is used by the fire school.

Aerotransportes Litoral Argentino, S.A. – ALA.

ALA COLOURS

Austral Compañia Argentina de Transportes Aéreos, S.A.

AUSTRAL COLOURS (First livery)

Austral Lineas Aéreas, S.A.

 AUSTRAL COLOURS (Images courtesy of the Christian Volpati Collection)

 Six band colours:-

1. pink to red

2. pink to magenta

3. mustard yellow to green

4. orange to red

Three band colours:-

5. yellow/orange/red

6. celeste/medium blue/dark blue

7. light green/medium green/dark green

8. desert light brown/medium brown/dark brown

New look 78 colours:-

9

G-AWWY (LV-PSW) and G-AXJK remained in their BCAL livery with titles added.

The following aircraft were also named at some stage as follows:-

LV-JNS Islas Sandwich del Sur

LV-JNT Islas Georgius del Sur

LV-LHT Isla Gran Malvina

LV-MEX Antardida Argentina

LV-MRZ Bahía Agradable

LV-MZM Cabo de Hornos

LV-OAX Puerto Argentino

LV-OAY Isla Soledad

Air Patagonia.

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