Ecuatoriana Pt2: Rainbow Fleet

Ecuatoriana dazzled the aviation world with its amazing special livery variations during the 1970s, as we saw in part 1.  From 1979 however the airline began to standardise its colours though it did it with style and plenty of colour. 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.

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.

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 enabled the airline to operate long-haul non-stop services to destinations in Canada and Spain for the first time. The Boeing 720s had all left the fleet by 1987 and in 1991 a pair of Airbus A310-300s arrived on lease.

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 competition from its Ecuadorean competitor SAETA and US Airlines (American and Continental). A combination of these factors and economic problems in South American in general led to the airline ceasing operations altogether in 1993.