Ecuatoriana Pt2: The Rainbow Fleet

Ecuatoriana dazzled the aviation world with its amazing special livery variations during the 1970s, as discussed in part 1.  From 1979 the airline began to standardise its colours, though it did it with style and plenty of colour producing one of the all time great liveries. However, despite the outward appearance of beauty, as with many other latin american national airlines, there was something rotten at the core of the airline, which would threaten its very survival into the 1990s.

Towards the end of the 1970s Ecuatoriana's fleet stood at a trio of ex-American Airlines Boeing 720-023Bs, acquired in 1975, and two ex-Pan Am 707-321s picked up in 1976 and 1978 respectively. All 5 were painted in the delightful individual liveries. The route network extended to Los Angeles, Miami and New York as well as a variety of Latin American destinations.

1980 routemap

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Perry Hoppe (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons

In May 1979 the five passenger 720s/707s, one of which was a Combi often used as a freighter, were joined by a full freighter configured 707 registered HC-BGP. This introduced a new stunning scheme, which, with some modifications, was to become the new standard colours of the airline. What really made the cargo 707's livery stand out wasn't just the rainbow striping but also the golden fuselage.

As with all of Ecuatoriana's 707s this aircraft was also of Pan Am heritage having joined PA as N451PA 'Clipper Union' on May 31, 1967.  Prior to her lease to Ecuatoriana she had been N451RN with Iran Air.  Named 'Manabi' she operated an all cargo service from Quito to Miami, Panama City and New York JFK. As you can see the livery involved six colourful bands - yellow, green and dark blue at the top and magenta, orange and red at the bottom. Along with the airline's traditional E logo this aircraft also gained a new freight motif, which to me looks like a stylised hand moving a cargo container.

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Torsten Maiwald (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons

By the early 1980s Ecuatoriana was operating scheduled passenger services from Quito and Guayaquil to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Caracas, Santiago, Panama City, Cali, Lima, Mexico City, Bogota, Rio de Janeiro, San Jose and Buenos Aires.

The next, and last, Boeing 707 arrived in February 1981 and wore a white variation of the cargo scheme. Not quite as outlandish as the previous schemes it was still nonetheless an outstanding scheme. The primary differences between this and the freight scheme was the less curvy sweep of the bands onto the tail, unslanted flag on the tail and of course the white (or light cream) background colouring. This 707, HC-BHY, was originally N896PA delivered to Pan Am in June 1969 as 'Clipper Norseman'. In later years even the golden cargo 707 would be repainted into this standard scheme.

Ecuatoriana gained its first widebody in 1983 when it purchased an ex-Swissair HB-IHA ‘St Gallen’ which had originally been delivered to Swiss in November 1972. She became HC-BKO / FAE46575 and was primarily used on the New York JFK service, either non-stop or via Panama City or Miami. There was also a weekly rotation to Los Angeles via mexico City. 

Torsten Maiwald (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons

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The airline was still in expansion mode in 1987 when Chicago via Orlando was added. By 1989 the Orlando section was dropped but Chicago remained. Although all the Boeing 720s had all left the fleet by 1987 the mainstay of the network was still the 3 remaining 1967-69 build 707-321B/Cs. Clearly a replacement of the venerable 707s was needed. 

Image from the amazing timetableimages.com. Click to see the larger version at their site.

That replacement would come in the form of a pair of Airbus A310-324s leased from new in September 1991, which became HC-BRA 'Guayaquil' and HC-BRB 'Quito'. That enabled the departure of the two 707-321Bs, one of which joined Arkia of Israel and the other the Ecuadorian Air Force.

Perry Hoppe (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons

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Unfortunately corruption and poor management blighted the airline in the late 80s and early 90s. Its operations became increasingly unreliable, while it also suffered in the face of intense competition. This competition came from not only its Ecuadorean competitor SAETA, but also American Airlines that had acquired Eastern's Miami hub. A combination of these factors and economic problems in South American in general led to the airline ceasing operations altogether in 1993. The pair of A310s were repossessed in March 1993 and went out on lease soon after to Uzbekistan Airways. The two 707-321Cs went to AECA Carga in March 1994 and it was only the sole DC-10 that would see service with the reborn Ecuatoriana in 1996.

For more on the third incarnation of Ecuador's flag carrier see part 3 of this series:

Ecuatoriana Pt3: VASP to the Rescue?