Transportes Aéreos Nacional


Transportes Aéreos Nacional was a Brazilian airline founded in 1946. It was merged into Varig in 1961, when Varig bought the Consórcio Real-Aerovias-Nacional, of which Transportes Aéreos Nacional was one of the partners.

History

Transportes Aéreos Nacional was founded in 1946 by Hilton Machado, former pilot of Serviços Aéreos Cruzeiro do Sul and Manuel José Antunes, former co-pilot of Aerovias Brasil and other two share-holders. It was authorized to function on February 26, 1947, and the first regular flights took off in 1948, from Belo Horizonte, the headquarters of the airline, to Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Cuiabá using its first two Douglas DC-3/C-47. After two years of activities, São Paulo was included in the network and the fleet increased to 6 Douglas C-47.
Between 1949 and 1955 Nacional successively purchased and incorporated the smaller airlines Viabras, OMTA, Central Aérea, VASD, and Itaú. All the airlines were operated in the form of a consortium, which took the name of Consórcio de Transportes Aéreos. This consortium was organized as one company of limited responsibility on November 20, 1953 maintaining the name of Nacional.
Those acquisitions greatly increased the number of cities served to 74 in 1954 and its frequencies, using 28 aircraft. It also had an international service to Asunción. However, being the fleet based on Douglas DC-3/C-47 and Curtiss C-46 Commando, Nacional was unable to fly longer sectors without stops.
On August 2, 1956, Linneu Gomes, the owner of Real Transportes Aéreos purchased 85% of the shares of Transportes Aéreos Nacionais and added the airline to a Consortium formed by Real Transportes Aéreos and Aerovias Brasil. The consortium took the name of Consórcio Real-Aerovias-Nacional. The powerful group was able to then fly to the entire Brazilian territory and some international destinations. Though maintaining legal independent identities, because they were controlled by the same person, Linneu Gomes, the three airlines operated jointly and in practice it was Real which controlled the consortium. In its time, the Consortium dominated the passenger traffic on the triangle São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, the economic center of the country.
In 1961 the three airlines of the consortium Real-Aerovias-Nacional were purchased by and merged into Varig.

Fleet


AircraftTotalYears of Operation
Douglas DC-3/C-47311947–1961
Curtiss C-46 Commando101956–1961
Convair 44051957–1961

Accidents and incidents

Accidents involving fatalities