Nuevo Continente
Encyclopedia
Nuevo Continente was a passenger airline
based in Lima
, Peru
, operating scheduled domestic and international flights out of Jorge Chavez International Airport
.
The airline was founded by Fernando Zevallos
in 1992 as Aero Continente. Flight operations were launched on 25 May of that year, initially on regional chartered routes on behalf of Occidental Petroleum
, a US-based oil and gas company. Scheduled domestic passenger services commenced on 20 July 1993, using a fleet of just two aircraft: a Boeing 727-100 and a Boeing 737-200. At that time, the Peruvian airline market was dominated by Faucett
and Aeroperú
. Aero Continente competed these airlines by offering extremely low ticket fares.
When Faucett and Aéroperu both went bankrupt in 1999 due to financial difficulties, Aero Continente acquired a monopoly
position as the only airline operating on domestic routes in the country. By that time, the fleet size had been increased to approximately 30 aircraft, mainly of the 737 type, though larger aircraft like the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar were also used. During that period, international routes were launched, the first ones connecting Lima with Panama City
and Santiago de Chile. This coincided with the foundation of Aero Continente Chile
, a wholly owned subsidiary aiming at the Chilean
domestic market using a fleet of five Boeing 737-200 aircraft handed down from its parent.
In late 1999, Aero Continente was ganted approval to operate on the prestigious Lima to Miami route. For this purpose, a Boeing 757-200 had been leased from Air 2000
. After half a year, the leasing contract was terminated. The Miami route was henceforth offered by Aero Continente Chile from Santiago with a stopover at Lima with a Boeing 767-200 aircraft. By 2001, the combined international network of the Lima and Santiago based companies had grown to include Buenos Aires
, Bogotá
, La Paz
, Caracas
, Guayaquil
and Santa Cruz de la Sierra
.
In 2002, the company suffered a setback when Chilean authorities arrested several staff members of Aero Continente Chile over drug trafficking
allegations, which forced the airline to cease all flight operations. As a consequence, the Chilean subsidiary was re-integrated into mainline Aero Continente, which claimed the grounding had been rather motivated by concerns that the company had become too strong a competitor for LAN Airlines
, the Chilean flag carrier
.
Aero Continente Dominicana
, a second wholly owned subsidiary based in Santo Domingo
, had been founded in late 2001. This short-lived business adventure lasted only roughly one year, operating a limited number of flights from the Dominican Republic
to Miami. In 2003, after the Dominican subsidiary had failed, Aero Continente itself opened a small base Santo Domingo Airport
, offering VFR flights
to the Hispanic population centers in New York
, Los Angeles
and Madrid
.
In 2004, though, Aero Continente had its approval to operate into the United States withdrawn by the Office of Foreign Assets Control
of the United States Treasury, as its founder and key person, Fernando Zervallos, had been included in a list of the ten most wanted crime boss
es of the illegal drug trade (Specially Designated Nationals). Thus, Aero Continente lost its insurance protection, as Global Aerospace, a partly US-based company which was responsible for this matter, was forced to cease its involvement with the airline. Consequently, all flight operations were ceased on 12 July of that year.
In a come-back effort, the company reacted by changing its ownership structure and adopting the new name Nuevo Continente, but could not get rid of the allegations that it was involved in criminal activities. In 2005, Nuevo Continente it had its airline licence
revoked by the Peruvian authorities, officially due to safety concerns.
Airline
An airline provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit...
based in Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, operating scheduled domestic and international flights out of Jorge Chavez International Airport
Jorge Chávez International Airport
Jorge Chávez International Airport , known as Aeropuerto Internacional Jorge Chávez in Spanish, is Peru's main international and domestic airport. It is located in Callao, 11 kilometers from the Historic Centre of Lima and 17 km from Miraflores. Callao is the port city now fully...
.
History
NOTE: This section relies only on one single source.The airline was founded by Fernando Zevallos
Fernando Zevallos
Fernando Melciades Zevallos González, also known as Fernando Melciades Zevallos Gonzáles, is the founder and owner of what was Peru's largest airline, Aero Continente...
in 1992 as Aero Continente. Flight operations were launched on 25 May of that year, initially on regional chartered routes on behalf of Occidental Petroleum
Occidental Petroleum
Occidental Petroleum Corporation is a California-based oil and gas exploration and production company with operations in the United States, the Middle East, North Africa, and South America...
, a US-based oil and gas company. Scheduled domestic passenger services commenced on 20 July 1993, using a fleet of just two aircraft: a Boeing 727-100 and a Boeing 737-200. At that time, the Peruvian airline market was dominated by Faucett
Compañia de Aviación Faucett
Compañía de Aviación Faucett, colloquially known simply as Faucett Perú or Faucett, was a Peruvian airline.-History:In 1928 Elmer J. Faucett and a group of Peruvian business men joined together to found the first commercial airline in Peru and one of the first in Latin America...
and Aeroperú
Aeroperu
Aeroperú was the former national flag carrier of Peru, and from 1993 to 2000 was a subsidiary of AeroMéxico. Its headquarters were in Miraflores, Lima. It went bankrupt in 1999...
. Aero Continente competed these airlines by offering extremely low ticket fares.
When Faucett and Aéroperu both went bankrupt in 1999 due to financial difficulties, Aero Continente acquired a monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
position as the only airline operating on domestic routes in the country. By that time, the fleet size had been increased to approximately 30 aircraft, mainly of the 737 type, though larger aircraft like the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar were also used. During that period, international routes were launched, the first ones connecting Lima with Panama City
Panama City
Panama is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama. It has a population of 880,691, with a total metro population of 1,272,672, and it is located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, in the province of the same name. The city is the political and administrative center of the...
and Santiago de Chile. This coincided with the foundation of Aero Continente Chile
Aero Continente Chile
Aero Continente Chile was a passenger airline from Chile, that operated scheduled domestic and international flights out of Santiago International Airport on behalf of its parent company, Aero Continente from Peru.-History:...
, a wholly owned subsidiary aiming at the Chilean
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
domestic market using a fleet of five Boeing 737-200 aircraft handed down from its parent.
In late 1999, Aero Continente was ganted approval to operate on the prestigious Lima to Miami route. For this purpose, a Boeing 757-200 had been leased from Air 2000
Air 2000
Air 2000 was a British charter airline that operated for 17 years between 1987 and 2004. The airline was renamed as First Choice Airways in 2004 which lasted until TUI Travel PLC merged with First Choice Holidays PLC in 2008 and as a result First Choice Airways was merged with Thomsonfly to create...
. After half a year, the leasing contract was terminated. The Miami route was henceforth offered by Aero Continente Chile from Santiago with a stopover at Lima with a Boeing 767-200 aircraft. By 2001, the combined international network of the Lima and Santiago based companies had grown to include Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, La Paz
La Paz
Nuestra Señora de La Paz is the administrative capital of Bolivia, as well as the departmental capital of the La Paz Department, and the second largest city in the country after Santa Cruz de la Sierra...
, Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
, Guayaquil
Guayaquil
Guayaquil , officially Santiago de Guayaquil , is the largest and the most populous city in Ecuador,with about 2.3 million inhabitants in the city and nearly 3.1 million in the metropolitan area, as well as that nation's main port...
and Santa Cruz de la Sierra
Santa Cruz de la Sierra
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the capital of the Santa Cruz department in eastern Bolivia and the largest city in the country...
.
In 2002, the company suffered a setback when Chilean authorities arrested several staff members of Aero Continente Chile over drug trafficking
Illegal drug trade
The illegal drug trade is a global black market, dedicated to cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of those substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs by drug prohibition laws.A UN report said the...
allegations, which forced the airline to cease all flight operations. As a consequence, the Chilean subsidiary was re-integrated into mainline Aero Continente, which claimed the grounding had been rather motivated by concerns that the company had become too strong a competitor for LAN Airlines
LAN Airlines
LAN Airlines S.A. is an airline based in Santiago, Chile. LAN is currently positioned amongst the largest airlines in Latin America, serving Latin America, United States, the Caribbean, Oceania, and Europe. It is a member of the Oneworld airline alliance...
, the Chilean flag carrier
Flag carrier
A flag carrier is a transportation company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given country, enjoys preferential rights or privileges, accorded by the government, for international operations. It may be a state-run, state-owned or private but...
.
Aero Continente Dominicana
Aero Continente Dominicana
Aero Continente Dominicana was short-lived airline based in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, operating out of Las Américas International Airport on behalf of Aero Continente from Peru, its parent company.-History:...
, a second wholly owned subsidiary based in Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
, had been founded in late 2001. This short-lived business adventure lasted only roughly one year, operating a limited number of flights from the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
to Miami. In 2003, after the Dominican subsidiary had failed, Aero Continente itself opened a small base Santo Domingo Airport
Las Américas International Airport
-Cargo airlines:-Accidents and incidents:*On February 15, 1970, a Dominicana de Aviación DC-9 flying to Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, crashed, killing all 102 persons on board ....
, offering VFR flights
Visits to Friends and Relatives
"Visiting Friends and Relatives" is a substantial form of travel worldwide. Scholarly interest into VFR travel developed in the mid 1990s after Jackson’s seminal article suggested that this type of tourism was much larger than official estimates suggested...
to the Hispanic population centers in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
.
In 2004, though, Aero Continente had its approval to operate into the United States withdrawn by the Office of Foreign Assets Control
Office of Foreign Assets Control
The Office of Foreign Assets Control is an agency of the United States Department of the Treasury under the auspices of the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. OFAC administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on U.S...
of the United States Treasury, as its founder and key person, Fernando Zervallos, had been included in a list of the ten most wanted crime boss
Crime boss
A crime boss or boss is a person in charge of a criminal organization. A boss typically has absolute or near-absolute control over his subordinates, is greatly feared by his subordinates for his ruthlessness and willingness to take lives in order to exert his influence, and profits come from the...
es of the illegal drug trade (Specially Designated Nationals). Thus, Aero Continente lost its insurance protection, as Global Aerospace, a partly US-based company which was responsible for this matter, was forced to cease its involvement with the airline. Consequently, all flight operations were ceased on 12 July of that year.
In a come-back effort, the company reacted by changing its ownership structure and adopting the new name Nuevo Continente, but could not get rid of the allegations that it was involved in criminal activities. In 2005, Nuevo Continente it had its airline licence
Air Operator's Certificate
An air operator's certificate is the approval granted from a national aviation authority to an aircraft operator to allow it to use aircraft for commercial purposes. This requires the operator to have personnel, assets and system in place to ensure the safety of its employees and the general public...
revoked by the Peruvian authorities, officially due to safety concerns.
Fleet
Over the years, Aero Continente (respectively Nuevo Continente) operated the following aircraft types:| Aircraft | Introduced | Retired |
|---|---|---|
| Boeing 727 Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is a mid-size, narrow-body, three-engine, T-tailed commercial jet airliner, manufactured by Boeing. The Boeing 727 first flew in 1963, and for over a decade more were built per year than any other jet airliner. When production ended in 1984 a total of 1,832 aircraft had been produced... |
||
| Boeing 737-100 | ||
| Boeing 737-200 | ||
| Boeing 757-200 | 2003 |
2004 |
| Boeing 767-200 | ||
| Fokker F27 Friendship | ||
| Fokker F28 Fellowship | ||
| Lockheed L-1011 TriStar | ||
Accidents and incidents
- On 13 December 2003 at 22:48 local time, the Boeing 737-200 (registeredAircraft registrationAn aircraft registration is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies a civil aircraft, in similar fashion to a licence plate on an automobile...
OB-1544-P) operating Aero Continente Flight 341 from CaracasCaracasCaracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
to LimaLimaLima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
belly-landed at Jorge Chavez International AirportJorge Chávez International AirportJorge Chávez International Airport , known as Aeropuerto Internacional Jorge Chávez in Spanish, is Peru's main international and domestic airport. It is located in Callao, 11 kilometers from the Historic Centre of Lima and 17 km from Miraflores. Callao is the port city now fully...
because the pilots had forgotten about lowering the landing gear since they had to cope with a problem concerning the flapsFlap (aircraft)Flaps are normally hinged surfaces mounted on the trailing edges of the wings of a fixed-wing aircraft to reduce the speed an aircraft can be safely flown at and to increase the angle of descent for landing without increasing air speed. They shorten takeoff and landing distances as well as...
. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair, but all 94 passengers and six crew on board survived the accident.