The airline was established as an arm of the Argentine Air Force in September 1940 (1940-09) to service unprofitable routes to remote areas.

The limited length of the runway at Port Stanley Airport resulted in weight regulations to the aircraft operating the route, which restricted the number of carried passengers to a maximum of 22 per flight, along with a reduced volume of mail and freight.

[6] Ten years later, at March 1990 (1990-03), the fleet had grown to include five Fokker F.28-1000Cs, 13 F.27s —six -400Ms, two -500s and five -600s—, one Lockheed L-100-30 and seven Twin Otters.

[10] At March 2004,[update] LADE served a comprehensive domestic network that included scheduled services to Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Comodoro Rivadavia, El Calafate, El Palomar, Gobernador Gregores, Lago Argentino, Mar del Plata, Miramar, Neuquén, Paraná, Puerto Madryn, Río Gallegos, Río Grande, San Antonio Oeste, San Carlos de Bariloche, San Martín de los Andes, Trelew, Ushuaia and Viedma.

[12][13] LADE–Líneas Aéreas del Estado operates services to the following domestic scheduled destinations (at June 2019):[14] The LADE - Líneas Aéreas del Estado fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of April 2021[update])[1] [2] Those aircraft are for regular flights.