Cielos del Sur S.A., operating as Austral Líneas Aéreas, more commonly known by its shortened name Austral, is a domestic airline of Argentina, the sister company of Aerolíneas Argentinas. It is the second largest domestic scheduled airline in the country, after Aerolíneas Argentinas itself. As a subsidiary of Aerolíneas Argentinas, the company shares its headquarters with that airline, which is located in the Aeroparque Jorge Newbery of Buenos Aires, the main base of operations of the company.

Austral is currently fully integrated into Aerolíneas Argentinas; however, some differences arise, especially those relying upon the Unions the staff of both companies are affiliated to, which lead to constant conflicts.

As of October 2013^[update], the airline operates an all-Embraer 190 fleet.

The origins of the carrier trace back to 1957, when Compañía Austral de Transportes Aéreos SACI (CATASACI) was founded, starting scheduled services in January 1958 (1958-01). CATASACI focused its services on southwestern Argentina, but it also operated international flights to Montevideo, Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas.Aerotransportes Litoral Argentino (ALA) was a Rosario–based company that was founded in 1957 to operate flights between this city and Buenos Aires using Aero Commander equipment and operated flights within northern Argentina. In 1965, Pan Am acquired a 22% stake in ALA in return for supplying the company with DC-3s. A year later, CATASACI acquired a 30% holding in ALA and the services of both companies were integrated.

At May 1971 (1971-05), the ALA fleet consisted of two C-46s, five DC-3s, two DC-6Bs and five YS-11A-300s that served a domestic network including Buenos Aires, Corrientes, Formosa, Goya, Paraná, Paso de los Libres, Posadas, Resistencia, Rosario, Salta, Santa Fe and Tucumán, plus regional services to Antofagasta and Asunción, whereas CATASACI had a fleet that included seven BAC One-Elevens —four 400s and three 500s—, one C-46, one DC-6 and three YS-11s.Austral Líneas Aéreas was formally established in June that year from the merger of CATASACI and ALA. In practice, operations of the latter airline were absorbed by CATASACI, which was rebranded as Austral Líneas Aéreas S.A. after merging. Austral inherited both companies' fleet, consisting of turboprops NAMC YS-11 and jetliners BAC One-Eleven.

...
Wikipedia