Transportes Aéreos Nacional
| Founded | 1946 |
|---|---|
| Ceased operations | 1961 |
| Headquarters | Belo Horizonte, Brazil |
| Key people | Hilton Machado, Manoel José Antunes, Linneu Gomes |
Transportes Aéreos Nacional was a Brazilian airline founded in 1946. It was merged into Varig in 1961, when Varig bought the Consórcio Real-Aerovias-Nacional, of which Transportes Aéreos Nacional was one of the partners.
Transportes Aéreos Nacional was founded in 1946 by Hilton Machado, former pilot of Serviços Aéreos Cruzeiro do Sul and Manuel José Antunes, former co-pilot of Aerovias Brasil and other two share-holders. It was authorized to function on February 26, 1947, and the first regular flights took off in 1948, from Belo Horizonte, the headquarters of the airline, to Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Cuiabá using its first two Douglas DC-3/C-47. After two years of activities, São Paulo was included in the network and the fleet increased to 6 Douglas C-47.
Between 1949 and 1955 Nacional successively purchased and incorporated the smaller airlines Viabras, OMTA, Central Aérea, VASD, and Itaú. All the airlines were operated in the form of a consortium, which took the name of Consórcio de Transportes Aéreos. This consortium was organized as one company of limited responsibility on November 20, 1953 maintaining the name of Nacional.
Those acquisitions greatly increased the number of cities served to 74 in 1954 and its frequencies, using 28 aircraft. It also had an international service to Asunción. However, being the fleet based on Douglas DC-3/C-47 and Curtiss C-46 Commando, Nacional was unable to fly longer sectors without stops.
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