LAPE

LAPE, Spanish Postal Airlines (Líneas Aéreas Postales Españolas), was the Spanish national airline during the Second Spanish Republic.

History

LAPE, often also spelt L.A.P.E. and colloquially known as "Las LAPE", replaced CLASSA (Compañía de Líneas Aéreas Subvencionadas), the company that had been the Spanish national airline during the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera, an airline that was still reeling from the Great Depression. LAPE became established in April 1932, CLASSA flying under the Spanish Republican Flag for one year. The republican government of Spain compensated CLASSA's shareholders and established postal contracts in order to make the new airline viable. The first Douglas DC-2, part of the modernization of the fleet inherited from CLASSA, arrived in Madrid-Barajas in March 1935.

In 1932 and 1933 LAPE's air service was restricted to the Madrid-Sevilla and Madrid-Barcelona lines. In March 1934 flights to the Canary Islands were restarted and a few months later in September the line Madrid-Valencia was inaugurated. In 1935 the lines Barcelona-Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona-Valencia and Valencia-Palma de Mallorca were operated, although with interruptions. By June 1936 the company's Canary Islands line included an air service between Las Palmas and Tenerife.