note

Flag carrier and national airline of Venezuela. Airline was established by government of Venezuela which decided that the government owned airline LAV Aeropostal should be run independent of government. Avensa and Aeropostal formed joint venture and VIASA was born. Operations commenced in January 1961. Airlines prime objective was to operate International service from Caracas. KLM provided technical and marketing assistance. First flight to Europe was operated in April 1961 with a DC-8 leased from KLM. Flights to Madrid, Azores, Lisbon, Paris, London and Milano in Europe as well as Miami, New York, New Orleans, Houston and Mexico in North America were operated with Convair 880s. Viasa also leased DC-9 jets from Avensa which it used on regional flights to Colombia, Latin America and Caribbean. First wide-body jet was a 747-200 leased from KLM in April 1972. First DC-10 was delivered in April 1974. In 1987 VIASA leased Airbus A300s for its North American network. Airline was loosing money by late 1980s and was put up for sale by government. Iberia won the bidding and since 1991 managed the airline. At this time Iberia was also in financial and management crisis and was not able to return VIASA into black. In January 1997 VIASA shut down.

founded - demised (age)

November 21 1960 - January 23 1997  (37)

headquarters

, Caracas

web

base airports

SVMI Simón Bolívar International Caracas
SVMC La Chinita Maracaibo

related operators

Línea Aeropostal Venezolana	Co-founder 51%
Avensa	Co-founder 44%
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines	Co-founder 5% until 1991
Iberia	Acquired in 1991