LaMia
 | This article may be affected by the following current event: LaMia Airlines Flight 2933. Information in this article may change rapidly as the event progresses. Initial news reports may be unreliable. The last updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. (November 2016) |
LaMia, short for Línea Aérea Mérida Internacional de Aviación, is a Bolivian charter airline headquartered Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
History
The airline originally started in Venezuela in 2009 when it took delivery of an ATR 72 212A wet leased from Swiftair and intended to begin service out of Mérida, Venezuela, its original base.[1] However, the company failed to secure its own air operator's certificate and folded in October 2010 after only operating since August. After its permits expired, LaMia attempted a relaunch in 2011 by taking a single Avro RJ-85 and focusing on domestic flights, although none operated from Mérida.[2] It also attempted a relaunch planned for early 2014, which would have operated out of Porlamar,[3] but this too also fell through.
In November 2015, LaMia moved its operations to Bolivia, setting up offices in a house in Santa Cruz de la Sierra,[4] and received permission from its national civil aviation authority to begin offering domestic charter flights there.[5] Its fleet included three RJ-85 aircraft with capacity for 95 passengers. At the time, operations coordinator Mario Pacheco said that resource extraction and mining companies, travel agencies and soccer teams were among their target clients.[5] Indeed, soccer teams were among the most faithful clients, and the airline had flown the Argentina and Venezuela national teams as well as local sides Oriente Petrolero and Club Blooming.[4]
Fleet
Current fleet
As of 29 November 2016, the LaMia fleet consists of the following aircraft:[6]
| Aircraft | In service | Orders | Passengers | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avro RJ85 | 1 | — | 128 | formerly owned by CityJet |
Historic fleet
LaMia and its Venezuelan predecessor also operated the following aircraft:[7]
- 1 ATR 72-100 — taken over by Swiftair in 2010
- 4 Avro RJ85 — 1 destroyed on 29 November 2016, 1 stored, 2 retired
Accidents and incidents
On the night of November 28, 2016 at approximately 11:42 pm (Bogotá time), LaMia Airlines Flight 2933, which carried 81 passengers mostly composed of Brazilian football squad Chapecoense, departed Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia) heading towards Medellín (Colombia) when the plane suffered a crash in the countryside just outside La Unión in Antioquía department. Out of the 81 passengers, 75 were officially confirmed dead. Miguel Quiroga, one of the pilots of the downed aircraft, also was a part owner of the airline.[4] The crashed plane was the only one of the three RJ-85s in the LaMia fleet which could fly[8] as the other two were undergoing maintenance in Cochabamba.[4]
References
- ^ "En julio comienzan a llegar aeronaves de Lamia a Mérida". Diario Los Andes. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
- ^ Maslen, Richard (4 August 2011). "NEW AIRLINE: LAMIA Plans Relaunch in Venezuela". RoutesOnline. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
- ^ "LaMia commences domestic Venezuelan operations". CH-Aviation. 5 November 2013. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
- ^ a b c d Navia, Roberto (29 November 2016). "LaMia es boliviana y uno de sus dueños falleció". El Deber (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 November 2016.
- ^ a b Rojas Moreno, Fernando (17 April 2016). "Línea Lamia vuela en Bolivia y dos foráneas alistan incursión". El Deber. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
- ^ airfleets.net - LAMIA Bolivia fleet details 29 November 2016
- ^ airfleets.net - LAMIA fleet details retrieved 29 November 2016
- ^ Torres, Fabián (29 November 2016). "El piloto del avión siniestrado también era el dueño de la aerolínea LaMia". Marca. Retrieved 29 November 2016.
External links
Media related to LaMia at Wikimedia Commons
| Scheduled | |
|---|---|
| Cargo | |
| Defunct | |
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