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Aviaco (Aviación y Comercio SA) was an Spanish airline incorporated on February 18, 1948. It was founded when the National Institute of Industry proposed that the national carrier of Spain, Iberia, could not meet the domestic demand. This had been caused by the heavy commitment of Iberia to the lucrative South American market, especially Buenos Aires and Montevideo. However, the company faced increasingly intense competition from Air France, KLM and British South American Airways, which compromised its own domestic growth. Aviaco won the tender that permitted services on domestic routes that Iberia did not operate.

The first aircraft were three freighters Bristol 170 and three Bristol 170 for passengers. Operations began in September 1948 between Bilbao and Madrid.

By 1965, a joint Aviaco-Iberia board was set up to coordinate aviation policies, which ensured that Aviaco and Iberia routes did not compete with each other.

During the 1980s the most of Aviaco shares was acquired by its competitor Iberia. From then Aviaco was in charge of the less important domestic routes while Iberia served the international destinations and the most important national routes, as the shuttle service Madrid-Barcelona. All the Aviaco technical, marketing and financial resources were transferred to Iberia. During this time, Aviaco had a fleet of Douglas DC-9 planes which were painted in blue and white livery.

At the end of the 1990s Iberia reorganized all its group of companies and Aviaco operations were closed in 1998. All its aircraft were repainted with Iberia's corporate logo.

• During the 1950s, two Aviaco Bristol 170 Freighter 21 crashed on approach to Madrid Airport. On December 4, 1953, the flight from Bilbao crashed in Sierra de Guaderrama in bad weather with a loss of 33 lives. On May 9, 1957 pilot error contributed to a crash of the Santiago de Compostella service which left 37 occupants dead.

• One of the worst aircraft crashes in Spain occurred on August 13, 1973, when a Caravelle crashed on approach to A Coruña. Pilot error caused the plane to collide with some eucalyptus trees, crash to the ground striking several houses and burned out, killing all 85 occupants and a person on the ground.

• On December 7, 1983, an Iberia Boeing 727 collided with an Aviaco Douglas DC-9 in intense fog when the two airliners taxied down the runway at Madrid Airport. All 42 on the Aviaco flight perished and there was a total of 85 deaths, including the Mexican actress Fanny Cano.

History of Iberia Airlines

• Aviaco aircraft from Airliners.net
• Aviaco old timetables (1951-1956) from Timetableimages.com