Completely state-owned, the carrier operated scheduled domestic passenger and cargo services from its main base at Jorge Chávez International Airport.

TANS (also known as Grupo Aéreo de Transporte 42 was established in 1963 as an arm of the Peruvian Air Force, based at the remote city of Iquitos, inaccessible by road, and tasked with providing scheduled airline flights, together with fulfilling search and rescue and medevac needs.

In 1988, its fleet consisted of a mixture of Pilatus PC-6 Porters and de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters, mainly operating as floatplanes.

[1][2]: 232–233 At March 2000 (2000-03), the fleet included three Boeing 737-200s, seven de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter Series 300, one Fokker F-28 Mk1000 and five HAMC Y-12-IIs; at this time, services to Arequipa, Chiclayo, Cuzco, Iquitos, Juanjuí, Juliaca, Lima, Piura, Pucallpa, Rioja, Trujillo and Yurimaguas were operated.

[4] TANS Perú served the following destinations throughout its history:[1] Aviation Safety Network records six accidents/incidents for the airline, of which five led to fatalities; the number of casualties involved in these deadly accidents totals 105.