The story
National Airlines was founded by a group of investors led by Miguel Nasur. It began operations on December 27, 1992, acquiring Southwest Pacific, owned by Edmundo Ziede, a businessman from Antofagasta. Southwest Pacific offered flights from Santiago to Arica, Iquique, and Antofagasta. The founders' vision, which included acquiring two Boeing 737-200 aircraft from the British airline Britannia, allowed for a rapid expansion of operations to the cities of Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas. Its slogan was "National, shortening the distances." Its first international flight was held on September 9, 1995, with the route from Santiago to Mendoza.
In August of the following year, it began flights to the cities of Balmaceda and Calamay. That same year, it signed an agreement with the Argentine flag carrier Aerolíneas Argentinas who would handle the maintenance of its Boeing 737 fleet. On August 15, 1997, National Airlines began flights to Buenos Aires. In September, it inaugurated its routes to the United States, after the Chilean flag carrier had transferred some of its routes to it the previous year. In late 1997, the magazine companies Air International and Aircraft magazines reported that National Airlines was evaluating wide-body aircraft, with the Boeing 767 and McDonnell Douglas DC-10 being the leading options, for potential service to Europe. This however never materialized. On January 8, 1998, another Chilean airline called Avant Airlines acquired 100% of National, with all of the airline's operations gradually passing into Avant Airlines, which operated up until 2001.
From Wikipedia’s article on National Airlines (Chile), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3
