# TAME Air Force Airline Founded (17 December 1962)

URL: https://allhistories.com/ecuador/timeline/1962-tame-air-force-airline-founded
Location: Quito, Ecuador
Themes: main-event

Transportes Aéreos Militares Ecuatorianos, or TAME, was founded on 17 December 1962 by colonels of the Ecuadorian Air Force. Wikipedia says the service was meant to give the Air Force a source of income, provide government transport to remote parts of Ecuador and train pilots. Inaugural flights using Douglas C-47 aircraft are dated to 4 December 1962. The first commercial flight, piloted by Teodoro Malo, ran from Quito through Esmeraldas, Bahía, Manta, Guayaquil and Cuenca and back to Quito. Domestic service used C-47s at first, and DC-3 and DC-6 aircraft were added over the next two years. In a country divided by the Andes, air links were a practical answer to the weakness of roads. Regular international flights began on 30 April 1966 to Havana, Panama and Santiago de Chile. In 2011 TAME became a state-owned company no longer under Air Force administration. The government ordered it liquidated, and it ceased operations in May 2020. The airline was the main domestic carrier for decades. At this point in the timeline (1962), Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy (7 Nov 1961 – 11 Jul 1963) was President of Ecuador, who was both head of state and head of government (Ecuador has no prime minister).

## Why it matters
TAME tied the Costa, Sierra and Oriente together by air for nearly six decades and showed the Armed Forces' wide role in Ecuador's economy and infrastructure.

Ruler at the Time: [Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy](https://allhistories.com/ecuador/rulers/carlos-julio-arosemena-monroy-1961)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — TAME (airline)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAME_(airline))
- [Wikipedia — Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Julio_Arosemena_Monroy)