Arca Colombia

[citation needed] ARCA was founded in 1956 at the initiative of Captain Hernando Pote Gutiérrez, who withdrew from Avianca due to disagreements with the head of the company, Martín del Corral.

Under pressure from Avianca, Lloyd, and Taxader, the Special Administrative Unit of Civil Aeronautics (SAUCA) cancelled Arca's passenger routes in the 1960s; Then, it had no choice but to operate only cargo from La Vanguardia Airport.

In 1973, SAUCA authorized ARCA the cargo operation to Miami International Airport from Bogotá, this was done on an intermediate scale in Barranquilla in the newly acquired Douglas DC-6B.

In 1975, ARCA entered the jet era by leasing a Boeing 707-120F, with a wide cargo door to transport flowers and perishable products between Bogotá and Miami, mainly, a route that the SAUCA had approved.

In 1977 the company achieved sufficient financial capacity to acquire its first Douglas DC-8-43 (registered as HK-1854), through Alitalia, to increase cargo operations between Bogotá and Miami.

At that time, the itinerary of the Arca flights with flowers and other perishable items was scheduled to leave Bogotá at dawn to arrive in Miami early in the morning.

During the 1980s, ARCA initiated operating agreements with the Ecuadorian cargo airline ANDES, thus a Douglas DC-8, HK-2667X, was leased to it and shared flights to the Old Mariscal Sucre International Airport in Quito from Miami and Colombia.

The decision adopted was based on the recommendation of the Higher Aeronautical Council,[6] which considered it inconvenient for the company, to operate cargo, to move passengers, in particular on the most important routes for the country.

After knowing the refusal of the SAUCA, Captain Gutierrez founded the airline in Venezuela and taking advantage of the bilateral agreement within the framework of the Andean Pact,[7] he began operating with passenger routes between different cities of Colombia and Miami via Maracaibo with DC-8 equipment at really cheaper prices.

In June 1993, a stowaway boy, Guillermo Rosales, age 13, was found alive on the landing gear of a DC-8 at Miami Airport, at 2 a.m., on a flight from Bogotá.

The director of the entity, Abel Enrique Jiménez, and the head of the Office of Control and Security, Captain Germán Duarte, said that in the process of inspection, they had to paralyze the operation they had been carrying out the aircraft of the company because they did not meet the requirements to fly to the United States.

The immobilization of each DC-8 represented for the company a 50% decrease in its revenues and by the beginning of 1996, the SAUCA was lowered by the FAA to category two, for not exercising an adequate inspection on the airlines.

According to the FAA, ARCA made a series of flights on the Douglas DC-8-55F between June 1992 and August 1993 without a necessary ventilation system for the main cargo door within a stipulated period.