AeroSur
Compañía Boliviana de Transporte Aéreo Privado Aerosur, S.A. (shortened and styled AeroSur) was a privately owned airline from Bolivia, which served as the country's flag carrier since 1998, along with state-owned Boliviana de Aviación. Headquartered in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, it operated a network of domestic and international scheduled passenger flights with its hub at the city's Viru Viru International Airport. As of 2010, the airline had 1200 employees. History Foundation and background AeroSur was established in April 1992, following the deregulation of the Bolivian airline market, which previously had been controlled by state-owned Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano. Revenue flights on regional routes were commenced on August 24 of that year, using an initial fleet of Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner and British Aerospace 146 aircraft. The airline's first flight was from Santa Cruz to Potosí. Over the following years, larger Boeing 727-200 airliners were acquired, allowing for a growth of network size and passenger numbers. Further expansion in the 21st century During the 2000s AeroSur renewed and expanded its fleet, introducing larger aircraft of the types Boeing 747 and Boeing 757, which made the inauguration of long-haul flights possible. In 2002, President Hugo Banzer declared the airline the flag carrier of