LAPE

thumb|260px|A LAPE Douglas DC-2 behind the plane in the foreground at [[Paris – Le Bourget Airport]] thumb|260px|LAPE Breguet 470 Fulgur that flew the Barcelona - Toulouse line and fled to France at the end of the Civil War LAPE, Spanish Postal Airlines (Líneas Aéreas Postales Españolas), was Spain's national airline during the Second Spanish Republic.

==History== LAPE, often also spelt L.A.P.E. and colloquially known as "Las LAPE", replaced CLASSA (Compañía de Líneas Aéreas Subvencionadas), the company that had been Spain's national airline during the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera, an airline that was still reeling from the Great Depression. LAPE was established in April 1932, CLASSA flying under the Spanish Republican Flag for one year. The republican government of Spain compensated CLASSA's shareholders and established postal contracts in order to make the new airline viable. The first Douglas DC-2, part of the modernization of the fleet inherited from CLASSA, arrived in Madrid-Barajas in March 1935.