Aerovías Nacionales de Puerto Rico
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| Founded | 1936 | ||||||
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| Ceased operations | 1941 | ||||||
| Operating bases | San Juan, Puerto Rico | ||||||
| Fleet size | See Fleet below | ||||||
| Destinations | See Destinations below | ||||||
| Headquarters | San Juan, Puerto Rico | ||||||
| Key people | Horacio and Narciso Basso | ||||||
Puertorriqueña de Aviación, previously known as Aerovías Nacionales de Puerto Rico (alternatively known as ANPRI) was an airline company that operated during the 1930s. It was the first documented attempt by Puerto Ricans to have a flag carrier in the country.
In 1936, brothers Horacio and Narciso Basso acquired a hydroplane to start commercial airline flights around the Caribbean.
ANPRI started flights from San Juan to Vieques, St. Thomas, St. Croix and Culebra. These flights allegedly took off from Residencial Las Casas, which at the time was a military base and was the place where the first Puerto Rican pilot, Félix Rigau Carrera, took off on his first flight as a pilot. The hydroplane that Aerovías Nacionales used was named "Kofresi", after the famous pirate, Roberto Cofresi.
1937 was an important year for the airline, as the company tried to get air mail contracts. The company struggled in its attempt at getting proper authorization to use postage stamps as a way to suffrage their air mail transports. On April 27, however, Aerovías Nacionales got permission to proceed with the charge of stamps, and by April 28, customers had to pay shipping of goods on Aerovías Nacionales. Costs for shipping were 3 cents on inter island flights and 10 cents on other flights. In 1938, Aerovías Nacionales began issuing their own logo-stamps, which cost 5 cents each. These were used as tax payments, therefore the range of air mail shipping costs on Aerovías Nacionales rose to 8 cents for inter-island flights and 15 cents for flights to other Caribbean spots.
By then, Dennis Powelson, who was a company pilot for the famed Don Q Puerto Rican rum brand, had established his own airline, Powelson Airlines. The Airline would provide Aerovías Nacionales with stiff competition; from May 15 to May 21 of 1938, the USPS organized a race between the two airlines in order to give the winning airline air mail routes. Aerovías Nacionales' airplane was not able to perform its duty and Felix Juan Serralles, who took off from Mercedita Airport in Ponce, won the race for the Powelson Airlines.
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