Thus, on July 1940, this Passenger, Cargo and Mail Transport Airline was set up, covering the Palomar - Esquel route, with intermediate stopovers in Santa Rosa, Neuquén and San Carlos de Bariloche. The maiden flight was made on September 4th of said year, under the name of LASO (Líneas Aéreas del Sudoeste - Southwest Airlines).
This maiden scheduled official flight was made with a three-engine Junker JU-52, under the command of the former First Lieutenant Juan Francisco Fabri.
Later on, LANE (Líneas Aéreas del Noreste – Northeast Airlines) was created. LANE covered the Buenos Aires – Iguazú Waterfalls route. The maiden flight was made on January 6th, 1944.
On October 23rd, the names LASO and LANE were replaced by the single name of LADE (Líneas Aéreas del Estado). The company continues to carry out the mission for which it was created by counting on its branches scattered all over our Patagonia. Despite the fact that LADE is dependent on the Argentine Air Force, it performs a public service. And, in order to offer such service, LADE applies its expertise in the areas of “air navigation”, maintenance, operating and managing support of both its military and civilian staff, as well as its transport airplanes.
The routes covered by LADE and the special regional and promotional sense, which guides all its action, noticeably improved the communication possibilities. It also produced a very profound effect by breaking the isolation, since the single possibility of having a means of transport capable of linking the small towns with the big cities in few minutes creates a true integration awareness among the settlers of the Patagonian region.
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LADE makes it easier for the settlers to travel from the mountain border to the coastline, by coordinating its flights and planes between the main centers and the remotest destinations. Thus, it links small towns with centers of major social, commercial and/or tourist importance, which are visited by international tourists.
With departures from Aeroparque and stopovers in Mar del Plata, San Antonio Oeste and Puerto Madryn, going past Trelew, LADE links the most important centers of the country.
Comodoro Rivadavia “Capital City of the Black Gold” is the most important coastal Patagonian center. Patagonian towns like Rio Mayo, Alto Río Senguer, José de San Martín, El Maitén, and El Bolsón, among others, are linked from there.
LADE, also, links Comodoro Rivadavia and Ushuaia, stopping over at the coastal cities of Puerto Deseado, San Julián, Santa Cruz, Río Gallegos, and Río Grande and the foothill cities of Perito Moreno, Gobernador Gregores, Río Turbio and Calafate.
During an important period of its existence and due to international agreements, LADE kept a stopover on our Malvinas Islands, “Puerto Argentino”. In 1972, the first flights with the Gruman Albatros aircraft were carried out, later on Fokker F-27 and F-28 flights continued twice a week, and in 1982, due to the South Atlantic conflict, LADE stopped providing said air services.
Argentina is growing due to its irreversible southern expansion to which the Air Force is constantly contributing. LADE air routes are an irrefutable proof of it.
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