ACES (Spanish acronym: Aerolíneas Centrales de Colombia) was an airline with its headquarters in the Torre del Café in Medellín, Colombia[2] and founded on August 30, 1971, by a group of 13 Colombian entrepreneurs, amongst them, most notably Orlando Botero Escobar and German Peñaloza Arias from Manizales and Luis H. Coulson, Jorge Coulson R., Alberto Jaramillo and Hernán Zuluaga from Medellín.
History
Mr. Botero and Mr. Peñaloza, who were considered pioneers in the early days of Colombian commercial aviation, had tried several times to establish a commuter service between Manizales and Bogotá. They managed to operate a small commuter airline by the name TARCA (acronym of Taxi Aéreo de Caldas), which was forced to shut down due to financial difficulties. With the support and capital of the new partners from Medellín, they embarked on the successful enterprise that would be ACES. The airline began service on February 22, 1972, with Saunders ST-27 aircraft for the routes Medellín-Bogotá and Manizales-Bogotá, and soon became a major player in the Colombian market. By 1976, the airline had expanded its network to smaller regional destinations, for which it purchased DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft.
In 1981, ACES acquired its first Boeing 727-100 jet. In 1986, an expansion began with the acquisition of more 727-100 and the arrival of Fairchild FH-227 aircraft built under license by