The Smartest Place in the World to Start an Airline

The Playbook With David Meltzer

David Meltzer, Entrepreneur.com

Entrepreneurship, Business, Careers

4.6 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2025

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In today’s episode, I sit down with Ed Delgado, the President and CEO of Ecuatoriana Airlines, to talk about reviving Ecuador’s iconic national carrier and the opportunity it presents. With over three decades in global aviation, Ed shares why Ecuador’s underdeveloped domestic market, where buses remain the main competition, makes it one of the few regions where starting an airline still makes sense. We discuss the strategic plan backed by KPMG, the untapped tourism potential across the country’s 14 airports, and how Ecuatoriana Airlines is positioning itself to reconnect Ecuador through domestic, regional, and eventually international routes built on a legacy brand.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Entrepreneurs the Playbook.
0:03.4	I'm super excited because I fly 200 days a year.
0:08.0	And we have a president and CEO of an extraordinary airline, soon to be servicing Ecuadoriana Airlines.
0:18.8	Ed Delgado, the president and CEO, welcome to entrepreneurs, the playbook.
0:24.8	Hey, thank you very much, David. I appreciate the time and I appreciate you. Thank you very much.
0:30.3	Well, you know, I want to start with the brand because there's so much going on with people buying
0:34.9	domains, buying, you know, JCPenney and all these brands that
0:40.0	still have awareness and community. And one of those brands is in your country, Equatoriana.
0:48.2	It is a well-known brand for many years. And like many companies companies it needs to be restructured with the potential
0:59.3	of servicing a market today how strong of a brand is equatoriana today in ecuador so quatrana
1:09.4	airlines or actually quatriana de Aviation started back in 1957.
1:14.5	It was an airline that was actually founded by an American investment. The airline was in existence
1:21.5	through the 60s and onward on through the 90s where it actually was shut down by the government and then
1:30.3	subsequently was sold off to the Brazilian carrier. The brand itself, Equateriazza and
1:35.7	is iconic and very similar to your audience. It would know, for example, Pan Am, that's been in the news
1:42.5	lately because they're going to restart,
1:50.0	Pan Am was iconic airline from the 1930s all the way up to the 1990s.
1:58.2	Very similar. The brand name is still very known, especially with anybody over the age of 35 in Ecuador.
2:05.8	So I am the owner of the Equatreiana de Aviation name and logos from back then, and now Equatiana Airlines, which is more suitable for an airline that's going to be flying not only
2:10.9	domestically, but eventually it would be international.
2:13.7	Yes, with a brand that has been built over 70 years and an executive that has been built over 35 years working for commercial and luxury transportation companies, some of the biggest in the world, like Delta, SkyWest and Continental, you've learned from top to bottom the business.
2:33.1	What was so attractive about the revival of
	...

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