SCADTA

The Colombian-German Air Transport Society (Spanish: Sociedad Colombo Alemana de Transportes Aéreos, German: Deutsch-Kolumbianische Luftverkehrsgesellschaft), or SCADTA, was the world's second airline, and the first airline in the Americas, operating from 1919 until World War II. After the war, SCADTA merged with Colombian regional carrier Colombian Air Service (Spanish: Servicio Aéreo Colombiano), or SACO. Together, SCADTA and SACO formed Avianca - Aerovías Nacionales de Colombia, the Colombian flag-carrier. After Avianca was purchased by Brazilian entrepreneur German Efromovich's company Sinergy in 2004, the name of the company was changed to Airline of the American Continent (Aerovías del Continente Americano) - Avianca). Avianca still operates to this day.

History

SCADTA started out as a small airmail carrier using Junkers seaplanes capable of landing on Colombia's Magdalena River, mostly since there were very few suitable landing strips in Colombia at the time. The German nationality of SCADTA's ownership motivated the United States government to subsidize Pan American World Airways' expansion in Latin America under the Hoover administration. SCADTA was barred from operating flights to the United States and the Panama Canal, although it continued to maintain a broad route network throughout the Andean region. The formation of Pan American-Grace Airways (Panagra) in the 1930s further eroded SCADTA's position in the market. Prior to World War II, principal shareholder and Austrian industrialist Peter Paul Von Bauer secretly sold his shares to the Pan American World Airways in an attempt to protect the airline from acquisition by Nazi Germany. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in late 1941, SCADTA was forced to cease operations and its assets were merged by the Colombian government into the state-owned airline, SACO, forming the modern Colombian national carrier: Avianca.