PLUNA

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Template:Infobox Airline PLUNA (Primera Línea Uruguaya de Navegación Aérea) is Uruguay's national and international airline company, based in Montevideo. It operates scheduled services within South America and to Spain.

1 Code Data
2 History
3 Services
4 Fleet
5 External links

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Code Data

IATA Code: PU
ICAO Code: PUA
Callsign: Pluna

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History

The airline was established in September 1936 and started operations on November 20, 1936. It was formed by the brothers Jorge Márquez Vaesa and Alberto Márquez Vaesa, who had obtained the necessary financial and technical support through the ambassador of the United Kingdom to Uruguay at the time, Sir Eugene Millington-Drake. The airline flew two De Havilland 5-passenger Dragonfly aircraft, from Montevideo to Salto and Paysandú. The two planes were batptized Churrinche and San Alberto, the latter in honor of the brothers' father. PLUNA flew 2,600 passengers in their first fiscal year, a huge success for that era. It also flew 20,000 pieces of mail, and 70,000 newspapers.

The 1940s saw PLUNA's expansion into the international field, with the airline's first regular service to Brazil in December, 1947, which linked the cities of Montevideo and Punta del Este with Porto Alegre, Brazil. This route was later extended to include São Paulo as well. Also added to PLUNA's network were Santa Cruz in Bolivia, as well as the Argentine destinations of Buenos Aires, Rosario and Córdoba. The airline was nationalised in 1951.

PLUNA's growth slowed considerably for the next three decades, but it entered the jet age soon after jets were introduced to the world, and added John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, and Miami, Florida to its destinations, using McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and Boeing 737 aircraft.

In the 1980s, PLUNA began flying to Madrid, Asunción, Rio de Janeiro and Santiago de Chile, but services to JFK and Miami were suspended. The city of Punta del Este, in Uruguay's southeast, flourished as a major tourist destination, and PLUNA benefited from that. During this time, an office was also opened in Tel Aviv, Israel.

The 1990's saw financial trouble loom for PLUNA, and in 1994 the government sold a 49% stake to a Varig-led consortium. Many people know the company as PLUNA-Varig. Nevertheless, PLUNA remains active with over 200 weekly flights from Montevideo's international airport, using ATR 42, Boeing 737, Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 equipment.

The airline is now owned by the Government of Uruguay (48%), Varig (49%), Victor Mesa (2%) and Pluna's employees (1%)

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