Southern Cross Caravelles: Cruzeiro do Sul's First Jets

Brazil has a rich history of great airlines but since the 1990s the old industry has been almost completely swept away so that now in 2015 none of the original players remains, not even Varig itself. One of the most pioneering of the original airlines was Serviços Aéreos Cruzeiro do Sul - the second oldest airline in the country. For many years its colourful blue aircraft were common on a wide domestic network and the French Caravelle introduced the carrier to jet operations.

Like several South American operations the airline that would become Cruzeiro do Sul had German origins being setup in 1927 as Syndicato Condor. In August 1942, after Brasil joined the Allies, the airline was nationalised and its name changed. During the early 1960s the failure of REAL and the military government's forced closure of Panair do Brasil benefited the other airlines including Cruzeiro. Whereas VARIG was alotted Panair's international routes Cruzeiro gained much if its domestic operation and became the country's second largest airline.

By that time Cruzeiro was already operating jets in the form of a quartet of Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle IVRs registered PP-CJA-D) which had arrived between December 1962 and July 1963. The Caravelles were added to by three ex-Panair frames leased from the Brasilian government in 1966 (registered PP-PDV/X/Z). Prior to the arrival of the jets the Cruzeiro passenger fleet had been based around the trusty C-47/DC-3 of which 30 still served in 1962 and Convair's successful twin turboprops (in 1962 8 CV-240, 4 CV-340 and 4 CV-440).

Following Panair's closure the DC-3 fleet actually rebounded from 19 to 25 aircraft in 1967 whilst the airline also acquired Panair's 3 Catalinas. As you can see above repainting of the Caravelles wasn't very quick as this picture dates from May 1973!

Further new equipment was acquired in 1967 with the arrival of Japanese NAMC YS-11s, which replaced the Convair fleet. It seems 11 were operated in total though the first four were only on short leases from the manufacturer. From 1971 three new Boeing 727-0C3s gave a significant upgrade in capacity and capability.

Between 1971 and 1973 an eighth Caravelle operated with Cruzeiro, as PT-DUW. She was an ex-United aircraft (N1001U) and was unique in being fitted out as an aerial mapping / topographical survey aircraft. She was leased to the Cruzeiro subsidiary LIASA to map the Amazon basin in advance of construction of the Trans-Amazon highway.

1973 was not a good year for the Cruzeiro Caravelles as two of the ex-Panair machines were written off. First PP-PDV crashed on landing at Sao Luiz on June 1, 1973 and then PP-PDX skidded off the runway landing at Manaus on December 32. The rest of the Caravelles remained in service until being withdrawn  in 1975. They were replaced by new 737-2C3 Advs and stored at Porto-Alegre. After years of storage PP-CJB was sold to Aerotal of Colombia as HK-1709X, though she never entered service and instead was used for spares.