A tribute to Air Aruba
This section is dedicated to the now defunct national carrier "Air Aruba".
History
Air Aruba began in September 1986 as a ground handling agent for most airlines in
Aruba. Two years after being founded, on August 18 to be exact, Air Aruba (with the
help of KLM & later Air Holland) carried out its first commercial flight with YS-11
turbo-prop type aircraft operating between the "ABC" islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao as well as Caracas, Venezuela.
Over the years Air Aruba expanded its schedule to various destinations in the Caribbean (Santa Domingo, St. Maarten), North
America (Newark, Miami) and South America (Sao Paolo, Maracaibo, Las Piedras). Air Aruba also started flying across the
Atlantic to Amsterdam and Cologne. This flight was initially operated in conjunction with Air Holland but was later assumed
completely by Air Aruba. Subsequently the fleet was also upgraded, shifting more from turbo-prop type aircraft to jet type aircraft,
including the Boeing 727, 737, 757, and 767. On the ground Air Aruba also kept developing, forming a new ground handling
company as a subsidiary in joint ownership with Ogden Aviation Services. Air Aruba also expanding its reservations office in
North America coping with the demand. Air Aruba had a committed staff with a reputation for excellence, hospitality, and service.
Air Aruba took great pride in the quality of customer service on its flights.
Carrying on the tradition of the Aruban people, Air Aruba strived to bring the friendliness of Aruba to the airline industry, however
financial problems made the Government of seek for a new owner for the airline. On October 27th, 1998, Air Aruba N.V. secured
a take over by the Venezuelan airline Aserca who became the majority owner of Air Aruba. In December 1998, Air Aruba leased
two brand new MD-90's expanding the total fleet to 5 aircraft. At the same time Air Aruba also inaugurated the route to
Philadelphia and re-opened the route to Baltimore making the total number of destinations to 10. In the competitive airline
industry it is important to have stable partnerships with other respected international airlines. Air Aruba had done so by
developing fruitful partnerships with amongst others Continental Airlines and K.L.M. In March 1999, Air Aruba had established a
far going agreement with Aserca Airlines and Air ALM to provide a better service in the Caribbean and South America for both its
customers and its employees.
Air Aruba Registration Code: P4
ICAO Code: ARU 276
Call sign: Aruba
Websites
http://www.airaruba.com (now removed)
http://www.interknowledge.com/air-aruba/ (dead site)
Destinations flown in its history were:
Caribbean: Aruba, Curacao, Bonaire, St.Maarten, Santo Domingo
North America: Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Houston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Newark
South America: Medellin, Bogota, Las Piedras, Maracaibo, Valencia, Caracas, Isla de Margarita, Barcelona, Sao Paolo, Manaus
Europe: Amsterdam, Cologne
Its fleet
Air Aruba initially used YS-11's and later replaced these with EMB120's. After that they acquired a Boeing 757 (to fly to Miami) but
later years saw Boeing 727, 737 and a 767 that flew to Europe and some U.S. routes.The last few years of Air Aruba flew an
all-jet fleet existing of MD-88, MD-90 and DC-9. Air Aruba's YS-11's were the first FQ planes.
YS-11's registrations were:
P4-YSA named Chuchubi
P4-YSB
P4-YSC
The B or C was named Trupial. Both the P4-YSA and the P4-YSB are still in Aruba parked at the south side of the airport.
Then there are the EMB-120's (formerly from ASA) registration
P4-EMA
P4-EMB was named Blenchi.
The only B727-100 leased from Hapag-Lloyd registration
D-AHLM (no name)
Air Aruba also had 3 leased B737-300's from TEA Belgium with registrations:
OO-LTE (no name)
OO-LTD (no name)
OO-LTL (no name)
Several leased B757-200's, the first one being
G-IEAB (no name) From Air Holland (PH-AHN)
Then P4-AAA named Totolica.
Air Aruba also leased a B767-200
PH-AHM From Air Holland
Interesting to note that they were also going to lease a B767-300ER from Aer Lingus (EI-CAL) but it was not
taken. It was in full FQ colors, then EI operated the plane in FQ colors with EI titles.
2 DC-9-3's
P4-MDD (ex-Eastern and Midway) had a name too plus
P4-DCA (ex-Continental) which is still in Aruba.
3 MD-88 (all ex-Midway)
P4-MDA re-registered to N-11FQ "Barica Geel"
P4-MDB re-registered to N-12FQ "Arikok"
P4-MDC no name.
1 MD-83
P4-MDE "Jamanota".
3 MD-90's
P4-MDF
P4-MDG
P4-MDH
Note: Most of the information above is unconfirmed and was passed along by contributors.
Inflight magazine
Air Aruba also had it's own inflight magazine called: Kwihi. Here are the covers of some of the issues.
Airplane Models
In the course of its history Air Aruba officially had 4 models reproduced from its fleet.
-B757 in 1/200 scale
-B767 in 1/100 scale
-MD83 in 1/100 scale
-MD88 in 1/100 scale
ArubaAviation.com
