LaMia Bolivia/Venezuela (Historical)

===LaMia (Venezuela)=== Bolivian airline LaMia originated in the failed Venezuelan airline of the same name, which was founded as LAMIA, C. A. in 2009 by Spanish businessman Ricardo Albacete. The name chosen, styled as LaMia, was the acronym of Línea Aérea Mérida Internacional de Aviación. It took delivery of an ATR 72 wet leased from Swiftair and intended to begin service out of Mérida, Venezuela, its original base. However, the company failed to secure its own air operator's certificate and folded in October 2010 after only operating since August, with Swiftair taking back the aircraft. After its permits expired, LaMia attempted a relaunch in 2011 by taking a single Avro RJ85 and focusing on domestic flights, although none operated from Mérida. Having had its efforts in Mérida thwarted twice, the airline moved to the state of Nueva Esparta: the airline changed the M in its name to mean Margarita and planned to relaunch in early 2014 operating out of Porlamar. A November 2013 demonstration flight featured the state's governor, Carlos Mata Figueroa, and Albacete gave a speech praising Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro; this incarnation also fell through amidst the country's worsening economic crisis. In 2014, LaMia even placed its planes in Trujillo, Trujillo, apparently with the intent of operating flights from Valera to Caracas, but these efforts never got off the ground; the airline failed to receive certification from the National Institute of Civil Aviation (INAC), and the planes were only in Venezuela for a year. ===LaMia (Bolivia)=== With their repeated failures in two Venezuelan states, the Venezuelan owners opted to lease the three RJ85s they had to Bolivian entrepreneurs; in a cost-cutting move, the Bolivian company adopted the name already painted on the aircraft: LaMia. The two aircraft not in service at the time of the crash still bore the Venezuelan airline's website, lamia.com.ve, on their sides. In November 2015, Bolivian airline LaMia—a legally dis