Airlines of Spain 1960s-1970s – A Pictorial History
Photos from the Collection of Henry Tenby
Write up by Henry Tenby

The airline scene in Spain during the 1960s and early 1970s was very vibrant specially for airline buffs. The Spanish charter holiday market was already well established by this time with the flag carrier Iberia and sister company Aviaco complemented by a handful of local charter companies operating classic equipment on IT charters.

In the late 60s and early to mid 1970s Aeroflete operated DC-3 and DC-4 passenger charters from a Madrid base as did SPANTAX with their famous Convair 880s, DC-7s, and DC-9-14, and IBERIA low cost sister company operated Fokker 27s and Caravelles. TAE had DC-7s, Trans Europa had DC-4s and DC-7s, and their was Air Spain with their Bristol Britannia and Air Spain with their DC-8-21 charter aircraft. It was a very colourful scene to say the least.

Many of these Spanish charter companies served the major airports of Europe including Zurich, Paris, London Gatwick and German centres too, flying holiday makers from cold climes down to the sunny beaches of Palma, the Canary Islands and sun spots and tourist destinations in Spain proper.

I have added a few TAP Portugal images as well.

Thank you very much for visiting this page, and enjoy!