Aviaco

If you go through old photos of Spanish airports from the 1970s to the 1990s, sooner or later you end up at Aviaco. The domestic airline stood in Iberia’s shadow, but was present at almost every airport in the country: on secondary routes between provincial cities, in the Balearic and Canary Islands and in charter traffic with vacationers from all over Europe. Here you’ll learn how Aviaco came about, which aircraft it flew, how to recognize its DC-9s and MD-88s and why the brand disappeared in 1999.

Aviaco at a glance

Aviaco was Spain’s second big airline alongside Iberia – never as a true competitor, though, but for most of its life as a subsidiary. The name stands for Aviación y Comercio, S.A. The company was founded on February 18, 1948 by businesspeople from Bilbao, made possible by a law that broke Iberia’s previous monopoly on Spanish air traffic. Flight operations began on May 1, 1948.

Originally Aviaco was conceived as a cargo airline. Banks from the region financed the first aircraft, Bristol 170 Freighters. Because Iberia already occupied the most lucrative routes, Aviaco concentrated on the second tier: scheduled flights between Bilbao, Barcelona and Madrid, and early on also connections to the Balearic and Canary Islands. The first international route linked Algiers via Palma with Marseille.

In the mid-1950s everything changed. The state industrial holding INI (Instituto Nacional de Industria) took over the majority, and in 1955 the headquarters moved from Bilbao to Madrid. In 1959 the capital was reorganized: Iberia came in and from then on held about two thirds of the shares. That made Aviaco definitively part of Spanish state aviation.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code AO: appeared before the flight numbers, on tickets, boarding passes and baggage tags.
• ICAO code AYC: was used by air traffic control to identify the flights.
• Callsign AVIACO: this is how the crews checked in on the radio.

In the last years it gets a bit confusing: from 1997, Aviaco flights also ran under Iberia flight numbers. If you evaluate old schedules or tickets from this period, the same flight can therefore appear with AO and with IB. How the two code systems relate is explained in the article on IATA and ICAO codes.

The history in stages

The division of labor with Iberia

The relationship with Iberia shaped Aviaco’s entire history. By the 1960s at the latest, a clear division of roles applied: Iberia flew the international routes and the big domestic routes like Madrid–Barcelona, while Aviaco took over connections between smaller cities, feeder flights and island services. The destinations served included, besides Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona and Bilbao, also Santiago de Compostela, Asturias, Santander, A Coruña, Vigo, Zaragoza, Seville, Alicante, Granada and many other airports.

On the islands, too, Aviaco was there early. The airline flew the opening flight to Menorca in August 1949 with a Bristol 170 from Barcelona, and at Ibiza Aviaco opened scheduled service on April 1, 1958 with flights to Palma and Barcelona. Traffic between the Canary Islands was shared by Iberia and Aviaco for a long time – until Iberia handed it over to the new subsidiary Binter Canarias from 1989.

Charter for half of Europe

A large part of the business consisted of charter flights. Aviaco flew for British and other European tour operators, with focal points including Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife and Girona. In doing so it met private competition such as Spantax and later Air Europa and Spanair.

In the 1990s, international scheduled routes from the provinces were added too, for example from Asturias and Zaragoza to London Stansted or from Valladolid to Paris.

The fleet: from the Bristol 170 to the MD-88

Hardly any European airline had such a varied early fleet. The most important types at a glance:

Type	Period (approx.)	Role at Aviaco	Spotter note
Bristol 170 Freighter	1948–1965	Initial equipment, cargo and passengers	Bulky high-wing aircraft with nose doors
SNCASE Languedoc	1952–1961	Four-engine propliner of the 1950s	French type, a great rarity today
Douglas DC-3	1953–1969	Domestic services	Tailwheel, the classic par excellence
de Havilland Heron	1957–1964	Short domestic and island routes	Small four-engine aircraft
Convair 440	from 1959	First pressurized aircraft	Ex-Sabena aircraft
Douglas DC-4 / Carvair	1960s–1970s	Cargo and car transport	Carvair with raised cockpit and nose door
Fokker F27 Friendship	1969–1994	Turboprop for small airfields	High-wing aircraft with two turboprops
Sud Aviation Caravelle	1970s	Jet for domestic and charter	Triangular windows, rear-mounted engines
Douglas DC-8	1972–1987	Charter and cargo, partly ex-Iberia	Four-engine long fuselage
McDonnell Douglas DC-9 Series 30	1974–1999	Backbone of the jet fleet	Short fuselage, T-tail
McDonnell Douglas MD-88	approx. 1990–1999	Fleet modernization	Long fuselage, larger engines

Early years: Freighter, Languedoc and Convair

Everyone knows the Douglas DC-3 – more exciting for aviation historians are the other types of the early period. The Bristol 170 was a robust cargo and passenger aircraft, the French SNCASE Languedoc a four-engine propliner that was rarely encountered outside France. In April 1960, according to contemporary reports, the fleet consisted of three Bristol 170s, three Convair 440s, five de Havilland Herons and five Languedocs. In the 1960s the DC-4 and DC-6 were added, and in 1964 also a Carvair – a DC-4 converted into a car transporter with a distinctive hump above the cockpit.

The 1970s: Caravelle, DC-8 and F27

With the Caravelle and the DC-8, Aviaco became a jet airline. In March 1975 the fleet comprised four Caravelle 10Rs, five DC-8-50s, six DC-9-30s and six F27s. The DC-8s were used mainly in charter and cargo; in the early 1980s Aviaco also took over five DC-8-63s that Iberia retired. The Fokker F27 flew from 1969 to 1994 and was ideal for short runways and smaller provincial airports.

DC-9 and MD-88: the face of late Aviaco

In 1973 Aviaco ordered six Series 30 DC-9s, and two more in 1974. In 1975 the airline ordered four DC-9-33CF cargo versions, delivered from 1976; in 1978 four more passenger aircraft followed. In March 1985 the fleet comprised 16 DC-9-30s and four DC-9-30Fs. The DC-9 remained the workhorse to the end – in March 1994 there were 20 examples.

Around 1990 the MD-88 joined, a version of the MD-80 family with a modernized cockpit. In March 1994 Aviaco flew 13 aircraft of this type. One of them, EC-FJE, was delivered in 1991, kept flying for Iberia after 1999 under the name “Gibralfaro” and was stored in 2008. The manufacturer of both jet types was McDonnell Douglas.

DC-9 or MD-88? How to tell them apart in old photos

Both types share the same basic shape: slim fuselage, T-tail, two engines at the rear. On slides from the 1990s they often stand side by side at Aviaco. A few features help with sorting.

After 1999 it gets trickier: the MD-88s then kept flying in Iberia colors, together with Iberia’s MD-87s. You recognize the MD-87 by its shorter fuselage and its taller vertical stabilizer that extends beyond the horizontal stabilizer. So if there is a long MD-80 with an EC-E or EC-F registration in Iberia livery in your photo, a former Aviaco MD-88 is quite possible – but you only know for sure from the registration.

How to recognize Aviaco

The DC-9 fleet wore a blue-and-white livery with the “AVIACO” titles. The design changed over the decades, and on photos from the 1950s and 1960s Aviaco looks quite different from the 1990s. The most reliable feature is therefore not the color, but the combination of titles, Spanish EC registration and aircraft type.

A special case are aircraft that Iberia sub-chartered to Aviaco in the 1980s – including Boeing 727s, A300s and even 747-200s. Such aircraft flew for Aviaco, but often wore Iberia colors. If you see an Iberia 727 with a charter background in an old photo, an Aviaco flight may be behind it. How such mixed and transitional liveries come about is explained in the article on hybrid liveries.

Accidents and incidents

Like many airlines of its time, Aviaco experienced several serious accidents. In the early phase the company lost Bristol 170, Languedoc and Heron aircraft, including in crashes in the Sierra de Guadarrama in 1953 and 1958 and near Madrid in 1957. In 1956 a Languedoc crashed on approach to Tenerife North (Los Rodeos).

In August 1973 a Caravelle crashed on approach to A Coruña; 85 people on board and one person on the ground were killed. The most serious event involving Aviaco was the collision at Madrid-Barajas on December 7, 1983: in dense fog an Aviaco DC-9 strayed onto a runway and collided with an Iberia 727 taking off. 93 people died. In the 1990s there were also two DC-9 landing accidents in Granada (1992) and Vigo – in both cases without fatalities.

The end: absorption into Iberia

In the 1980s Aviaco moved ever closer to Iberia. Engineering, sales and finance increasingly ran through the parent, and from 1997 Aviaco flights also carried Iberia codes. In 1998 Iberia bought the state holding SEPI’s 67 percent and thereby held all the shares.

In early 1999 there were strikes and negotiations over taking over the staff. At the end of August 1999 the boards agreed, and on September 1, 1999 around 1,500 employees, including 330 pilots, moved to Iberia. The Aviaco brand disappeared, and the DC-9s and MD-88s received Iberia colors. Legally, the merger was entered in the commercial register in October 2000. Iberia itself is now part of the International Airlines Group.

Finding traces of Aviaco today

You can no longer spot Aviaco live. Still, there are ways to engage with the airline:

• Archive photos: photo books and private collections from the 1970s to the 1990s show Aviaco at almost all Spanish airports. A look through your own slides is worthwhile if you vacationed in Spain back then.
• Museum: The Museo del Aire in Madrid-Cuatro Vientos shows Spanish aviation history. How to plan the visit for photography is described in the spot guide Museo del Aire at Cuatro Vientos airfield.
• At the old home airport: At Madrid-Barajas you now see the successors in Iberia colors – you’ll find good spots in the Madrid guide and at the spot La Muñoza.

Before you set off with your camera in Spain, read the notes under Spotting in Spain. And if you generally enjoy old liveries, you’ll find more material in Legendary airline liveries and Recognizing vintage aircraft in the sky.

Common mix-ups

• Taking an Aviaco flight for an Iberia flight – from 1997 Aviaco flights also carried IB numbers, and in the 1980s Iberia aircraft flew for Aviaco.
• Treating the DC-9 and MD-88 as the same – the MD-88 is much longer and has larger engines.
• Taking an ex-Aviaco MD-88 for an Iberia MD-87 – the MD-87 is shorter and has a taller tail.
• Taking AO for a current code – the identifier here refers to the historic Aviaco.
• Taking Aviaco for a private airline – from the mid-1950s it was state-controlled, and from 1959 an Iberia subsidiary.

Conclusion

For more than half a century Aviaco was the second tier of Spanish aviation – and precisely because of that, present everywhere. From the Bristol 170 to the MD-88, its fleet mirrors the development of European commercial aviation. If you sort old Spain photos today, you can confidently assign the blue-and-white DC-9s and MD-88s by registration and type, and thereby preserve a piece of aviation history that has not existed since 1999.