Startup and pre-certification Aerovias Sud Americana was incorporated in Florida on 11 October 1947, by Owen Williams and other former employees of
U. S. Airlines (then also based at
St Petersburg). Founding capital was only $1000. ASA made its first flight 17 October with a delivery of
Jeeps from St Petersburg to
Havana, Cuba. ASA applied for and received a "letter of registration", which the CAB provided to
irregular air carriers in lieu of a certificate. Subsequent loads included race horses and tobacco; at the time
Tampa was a center of US cigar manufacturing. The Spanish name was said to be helpful selling within Latin America. In 1949 the CAB told the airline its activities looked too much like a scheduled carrier, at which point most of the existing business and most of the original founding team moved to a Cuba-based affiliate. ASA first applied to the CAB for a certificate in 1948, ultimately requesting authority to fly scheduled service from St Petersburg/Tampa to Havana, points in Mexico and Central America and Colombia. At the time ASA had a single
C-46. In April 1951, still undecided about such certification, the CAB gave ASA an exemption to fly scheduled freight between St Petersburg/Tampa and
Guatemala City. Finally, in June 1952, the CAB granted certification to ASA for a five year term, including the right to fly to
Balboa, Panama (i.e.
Panama City) in the then-US controlled
Panama Canal Zone. It was to do so without subsidy, this being an important distinction in an era where the CAB subsidized many US passenger carriers. President
Harry S. Truman gave the required assent in August. ASA started certificated scheduled service on 4 December.
Scheduled cargo carrier ASA specialized in flying heavy/bulky cargo that would not usually travel by air domestically. There were animal holding pens at St Petersburg airport The most successful Latin American points on the network were Panama City,
San Salvador and
Guatemala City. In 1956, ASA's market split, by pounds shipped, was 74% southbound, 20% northbound, 6% between non-US points. Of the 74% southbound traffic, 55 percentage points was general cargo, 14 was cattle and 4 was automobiles. Unusually, ASA had no military charter business. All the other scheduled cargo carriers (
Flying Tiger,
Slick,
Seaboard & Western, Riddle and, in the late 1950s,
AAXICO Airlines) developed large military charter businesses during the 1950s. In the year ending June 1959, then the US government financial year, military charters comprised well over a third of every other scheduled cargo carrier's revenues, in some cases much more: Slick Airways had no scheduled cargo revenue that period, almost 100% of its revenue coming from military charters. Challenges included trade imbalance; there was not much to ship northbound, since most exports from the area at the time were commodities or agricultural items. Another was political instability and lack of aviation treaties with most Latin American countries, which meant landing rights could be withdrawn at any time, a source of significant uncertainty. ASA was also undersized. In 1956,
Flying Tiger had over 15 times ASA's revenue,
Slick and
Seaboard & Western were almost 10 times the revenue. Riddle was over three times as large. schematic showing ASA's route authority before and after its certificate renewal case in 1959. The routes did not have to be served in the order shown. For instance, Mexico did not permit ASA to serve Merida, and ASA served Guatemala City nonstop On the one hand, the CAB did provide some help. In 1955 ASA received additional nonscheduled authority to fly to three countries not originally on its network:
Nicaragua,
Costa Rica and
Ecuador. In 1959, these were added to the scheduled certificate, as were Venezuela and Peru. Further, Miami was added as a "co-terminal" with St Petersburg/Tampa. On the other hand, the slow CAB process hurt. These extensions were granted as part of ASA's renewal of its certificate, which expired October 1957. ASA timely applied for renewal, so scheduled authority continued while the CAB deliberated. That deliberation took almost two years, with uncertainty hanging over the company. Time-limited certificates such as ASA's were themselves a problem, making financing difficult. Cuban air freight was ASA's foundation business. • In 1960 Guatemala protected its flag carrier,
Aviateca, by preventing other airlines from flying to Guatemala. In 1959, Guatemala accounted for about 60% of ASA's scheduled business, and losing Guatemala reduced the ability to serve El Salvador, another good market. to $435,000 in 1961. This was renewed in 1960 for a second year. The amount of the contract was substantial relative to ASA's revenues and explains the revenue uplift 1960 and 1961 financials.
Riddle On 17 August 1960, citing the Guatemala decision as a precipitating event, ASA abruptly announced it would move to Miami effective September 1, leaving behind the St Petersburg animal pens and almost all of its employees. On 8 March 1961, ASA announced it was merging with Miami-based Riddle Airlines, which seemed like a natural fit. Riddle flew scheduled cargo between northern cities and Miami and Puerto Rico. In July, the CAB's Bureau of Economic Regulations recommended the Board approve the deal. In September, the CAB examiner on the case said the same. The CAB even approved some interim measures, giving Riddle the right to fly ASA's aircraft in the meantime and vice versa. But two and a half years after Riddle and ASA first approached the CAB, in November 1963, the CAB rejected it, saying Riddle wasn't as healthy as back in March 1961. But the CAB caused the delay during which Riddle and ASA experienced two poor years,
hanging fire on the CAB decision. Unfortunately, ASA was also no longer able to access military charters. From 1961 onward, US military business was preferentially directed towards airlines that could supply aircraft to the
Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) that the US military viewed as particularly valuable, in particular, turbine (jet or
turboprop) aircraft. By December 1963, ASA stood alone as the only certificated cargo airline without turbine equipment. From financial 1962 (started July 1961) onward, ASA received no further military business. ASA stopped operations 16 April 1965. Riddle (named Airlift International since 1965), did not give up. In 1965, it bought out some of the biggest shareholders of moribund, bankrupt ASA and went back to the CAB, which, once again, after a long delay, rejected the deal a second time in 1968. The CAB finally cancelled ASA's certificate December 20, 1968. ==ASA International Airlines==