Aviation History
Commercial aviation reached Ecuador early by South American standards, with airlines such as SEDTA (a Lufthansa-linked carrier) and SAN operating domestic and regional routes from the 1930s onward. Ecuador built two long-running national carriers, the privately founded Ecuatoriana de Aviación (1957) and the military-origin, later state-owned TAME (1962), both of which struggled financially for decades and ultimately failed — Ecuatoriana folding for good in 2006 and TAME being liquidated in 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic compounded years of losses. As of the mid-2020s Ecuador has no true state flag carrier; LATAM Airlines Ecuador (descended from the 1980s carrier Aerogal) and Avianca Ecuador are the largest carriers serving the domestic and international market.
Sociedad Ecuatoriana de Transportes Aéreos (SEDTA), linked to Germany's Lufthansa, was among Ecuador's earliest airlines, flying domestic and Andean regional routes before World War II disrupted German-linked carriers in the Americas.
Compañía Ecuatoriana de Aviación was established in May 1957 by American and Ecuadorian investors, beginning operations that August and later becoming Ecuador's principal international flag carrier.
Transportes Aéreos Militares Ecuatorianos (TAME) was founded on 17 December 1962 by the Ecuadorian Air Force, later becoming the country's dominant domestic carrier.
The government took control of Ecuatoriana de Aviación, renaming it Empresa Ecuatoriana de Aviación and formalizing its role as state flag carrier.
Ecuatoriana suspended operations amid an economic downturn, resuming only after a 1995 privatization deal that brought in Brazil's VASP as majority owner.
After years of ownership changes and financial trouble following its 1990s privatization, Ecuatoriana de Aviación shut down for good.
TAME was transferred from Air Force administration to a fully state-owned commercial airline, expanding international routes as Ecuador's flag carrier.
The Ecuadorian government liquidated TAME on 19–20 May 2020, citing longstanding financial losses worsened by the COVID-19 collapse in air travel demand, leaving Ecuador without a state flag carrier.
Ecuatoriana de Aviación · TAME · SAN/SAETA · LATAM Airlines Ecuador (formerly Aerogal) · Avianca Ecuador
Compiled from public encyclopedic and aviation trade-press sources; exact ownership percentages and minor date discrepancies across sources (e.g., SEDTA's founding year) could not be fully cross-verified.
Aviation Firsts
"El Cóndor" national aviation field — Guayaquil (1921): Inaugurated 1921 in the Durán/Eloy Alfaro area near Guayaquil, per a newspaper history retrospective (single source, not an encyclopedia). Hosted Ecuador's first scheduled-type mail flight on 27 October 1924 (Guayaquil–Quito, the first flight over the Andes in Ecuador). Earlier ad hoc flights at a Guayaquil racecourse field are dated to November 1912 and October 1913. Defunct/superseded. · Diario Expreso (Ecuador) ↗
Mariscal Lamar International Airport — Cuenca (1940): First constructed 1940 by Panagra (an American airline company), per an aviation industry blog (single source, no corroborating encyclopedia entry found for this date). Still Cuenca's airport today, though heavily modified over time. · eways-aviation.com ↗
The Old Mariscal Sucre International Airport in Quito (opened 1960, closed 2013) is often cited as Quito's historic airport but is confirmed younger than both claims above; no single consolidated, high-confidence source names one definitive "oldest airport in Ecuador," so both the 1921 Guayaquil aviation field and the 1940 Cuenca airport are reported, each single-sourced and flagged as such.
SEDTA (Sociedad Ecuatoriana de Transportes Aéreos) (1937): Founded 1937 per the article text (1938 per the infobox — sources disagree). An Ecuadorian company founded by German aviation entrepreneur Fritz Hammer, majority-financed by Deutsche Lufthansa via nominee shareholders (foreign majority ownership was barred by law). Forced to stop flying 27 August 1941 under US pressure during WWII, formally liquidated 22 October 1941. · German Wikipedia (dewiki.de mirror) ↗
Avianca Ecuador (formerly AeroGal) (1985): Founded November 1985 by Carlos Serrano Lusetti, began flying 1986. Rebranded Avianca Ecuador in June 2014 after Synergy Group/Avianca took majority ownership in 2009; still flying domestic, Galápagos and regional routes, a Star Alliance affiliate member. · 2K ↗ · Wikipedia ↗
SEDTA (1937/38) is the oldest Ecuadorian airline ever founded but was foreign-majority-financed and shut down within a few years; Avianca Ecuador/AeroGal (1985) is the oldest Ecuadorian airline still flying today. Compañía Ecuatoriana de Aviación (1957) and TAME (1962), Ecuador's historically dominant flag carriers, are both younger than SEDTA and both now defunct, so they are not reported as separate "oldest" claims.
Swissport (Switzerland): Serving airlines at Mariscal Sucre International Airport (Quito) "since 1994," per Swissport's own network page — an explicit, dated statement, though not phrased as a "first in Ecuador" claim and not independently corroborated by a press release or news article. Explicitly checked dnata, Menzies Aviation (found only in the context of a 2023 Avianca cargo contract with no Ecuador-specific date), Çelebi, Havaş, WFS, Aviapartner and National Aviation Services, with no Ecuador mentions found for any of them. (best-documented candidate found — not source-confirmed as literally first.) · Swissport ↗