SCADTA
| Sociedad Colombo Alemana de Transportes Aéreos SA | |
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| IATA code : | |
| ICAO code : | |
| Call sign : | |
| Founding: | December 5, 1919 |
| Operation stopped: | 1941 through merger |
| Seat: | Barranquilla |
| Turnstile : | |
| Home airport : |
Veranillo Barranquilla |
| Company form: | Sociedad Anónima |
| Management: | Ernesto Cortissoz |
| Alliance : | Pan American World Airways |
| Fleet size: | see Avianca |
| Aims: | national |
| Sociedad Colombo Alemana de Transportes Aéreos SA ceased operations in 1941 through a merger. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation. | |
The SCADTA ( acronym for Sociedad Colombo Alemana de Transportes Aéreos , in German German-Colombian air transport company ) was an airline founded in Colombia in 1919 , the first in America and the second worldwide after KLM . It operated until World War II . At the end of 1939, the Colombian government was forced to nationalize the SCADTA and merge it with its main competitor, the SACO - Servicio Aéreo Colombiano . The Avianca - Aerovías Nacionales de Colombia , which is Colombia's flag carrier to this day , was formed from this association . In 2004 the Avianca was acquired by Germán Efromovich's Synergy Aerospace Corp. Saved from bankruptcy and renamed Avianca - Aerovías del Continente Americano .
history
America's first airline
SCADTA is considered the second oldest airline in the world, after KLM , which was founded on December 5, 1919 by Werner Kämmerer , Stuart Hosie , Alberto Tietjen , Ernesto Cortissoz (first president of the company and today's namesake of the airport in Barranquilla), Rafael Palacio , Jacobo Correra and Aristides Noguera was founded in Barranquilla . On December 19, 1920, SCADTA was registered as a public company in the Barranquilla Commercial Register.
Raising capital and personnel are the first tasks of the new company. Ernesto Cortissoz, as chairman of the board of SCADTA, took over the acquisition of new shareholders in Colombia. During this time, the company was headed by Albert Tietjen. Founding member Werner Kämmerer travels to Germany on behalf of the company. On April 13, 1920, two F 13s from Junkers Flugzeugwerke were bought here. At that time it was the world's first all-metal airplanes with their first flight in 1919. It was hoped that this would make them more suitable for the tropics than the wooden airplanes. At the same time, they wanted to have the F 13 delivered with floats instead of wheels, as the Colombian state could not support the airline and the geographic conditions of the Rio Magdalena as a natural runway helped save investments. Junkers was very interested in a business relationship with SCADTA in order to be able to incorporate the experience gained there into its designs. The two aircraft were delivered on June 10, 1920. In mid-July, they were packed in boxes ready for dispatch and shipped by sea to South America and assembled.
Parallel to these activities, Werner Kämmerer was able to win three other people who are important to SCADTA for society. These were Hellmuth von Krohn (World War II pilot ) as a later aviation pioneer, Fritz W. Hammer (World War II pilot) as the later chief pilot and Wilhelm Schnurbusch (technician and experienced airship engineer) as the later technical director. All four traveled to Colombia with the boxes.
On August 6, 1920, Wilhelm Schnurbusch began assembling the two aircraft. The first flight attempts could then be started 20 days later, all of which were successful. The scheduled flights worked according to an exact weekly flight plan. On its first flight on October 19, 1920 with Hellmuth von Krohn, the SCADTA carried 57 letters from Barranquilla to Puerto Colombia with a Junkers F 13 . Like the other nine F 13s, the machine was equipped with floating runners. Shortly afterwards, the Colombian government succeeded in obtaining a concession for the transport of airmail .
Mail flights inland
After the first test flights had taken place near Barranquilla, today's river port city on the Rio Magdalena , a first mail flight was carried out on October 20, 1920 to Girardot . Since Bogotá , the capital of Colombia, is 2600 meters high in the Andes, mail, goods and people could only be transported from the coast to there by river via the river port city of Girardot. With a length of 1538 kilometers, the Rio Magdalena caused a myriad of problems, so that river navigation often lost weeks, even months, especially in the summer. In the first decades of the last century, freight and mail were still loaded from the Caribbean ports onto stern-wheel steamers and initially transported 1000 kilometers upstream. There it was then 80 kilometers by land, as rapids and waterfalls did not allow advancement on the river. Then everything was loaded back onto a ship, brought to Girardot, and from there it went by road or rail up the mountains to a height of 2600 meters to Bogotá.
After the SCADTA fleet in 1920 with a total of three Junkers seaplane type F 13 began, the aircraft inventory was gradually increased to. In August 1925 a total of three Dornier Wal flying boats were added. Even later, Junkers Ju 52 machines (with floats ) were even used. In mid-1924 the SCADTA had its first crash, all five occupants of the Junkers F 13 “Tolima” died, including Hellmut von Krohn and Ernesto Cortissoz.
Forced sale to the Pan Am
After the outbreak of World War II, the owners were forced to sell the company to Pan American World Airways (PAA). On June 12, 1940, the PAA took over SCADTA due to its majority shareholding and with the approval of the US government . All German employees were dismissed and the beeline was henceforth called Avianca ( Aerovias Nacionales de Colombia ). Because of the turmoil of war in Europe, the Colombian government was tied to the US economically and did not dare to veto . At the beginning of the 21st century , Avianca ceased operations and its successor, the so-called "New Avianca", now belongs to Avianca Holdings , a South American investor group.
Web links
- SCADTA-SOCIEDAD COLOMBO-ALEMANA De TRANSPORTES AEREOS (English)
- Fundadores SCADTA (Sociedad Colombo Alemana de Transportes Aéreos) (Spanish)
- Walter Brandes: SCADTA - Sociedad Colombo Alemana de Transportes Aereos - A brief insight into the history of the German-Colombian airline
Individual evidence
- ↑ Techo: el histórico barrio de Bogotá que tuvo un aeropuerto conexioncapital.co, accessed on April 14, 2020 (es)
- ↑ El primer aeropuerto de Colombia: Veranillo elespectador.com, accessed on January 6, 2019 (Spanish)
- ↑ aeropuertobaq.com accessed on January 7, 2019 (Spanish)
- ↑ CRASH OF A JUNKERS F.13 IN BARRANQUILLA: 5 KILLED Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives, accessed on January 8, 2019 (English)
