Avianca El Salvador
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| Founded | 1931 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hubs | Comalapa International Airport Jorge Chavez International Airport Juan Santa Maria International Airport | ||||||
| Focus cities | San Pedro Sula Managua | ||||||
| Frequent-flyer program | Distancia | ||||||
| Fleet size | 28 | ||||||
| Destinations | 35 | ||||||
| Headquarters | San Salvador, El Salvador | ||||||
| Website | www.taca.com | ||||||
TACA is an airline in Central America. Its original name stood for Transportes Aéreos Centroamericanos, or Central American Air Transport. Due to its expansion to South America, which meant flying within the three Americas, now it's name stands for Transportes Aéreos del Continente Americano or American Continent Air Transport. Grupo TACA, as it was formerly known, was created by a merger between five national airlines in the 1980s:
- TACA (El Salvador)
- Aviateca (Guatemala)
- Lacsa (Costa Rica)
- Aeronica (Nicaragua)
- Sahsa (Honduras)
TACA Peru is now an important member of the group. Grupo TACA is also considering opening airlines in Panama, Argentina and Chile; these would be named "Taca Panama", "TACA Argentina" and "TACA Chile" respectively; to compete with other large Latin American airline groups, including Copa Airlines and the Lan group.
The airline's logo is five golden macaws, representing the five original constituent airlines. Each airline flies similar aircraft in similar livery, but retains its own name on the fuselage.
Today, TACA has scheduled flights to most major airports in the Western Hemisphere. Its three flight hubs or "Centros de Conexiones" are:
- Comalapa International Airport in San Salvador, El Salvador
- Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, Peru
- Juan Santa Maria International Airport in San José, Costa Rica.
TACA's headquarters are in San Salvador, El Salvador. The company is owned by the Kriete family of San Salvador.
History
TACA was founded in Honduras in 1931 by New Zealander Lowell Yerex. According to Time Magazine, 31 December 1945, TACA was once "world's largest cargo carrier."
A little known fact is that, during the 1940s, TACA also operated an airline named "TACA Venezuela".
TACA Int'l took a 49% stake in Nicaraguan airline Aeronica in 1992.
Destinations
See full article: TACA destinations.
Fleet
- 00 Airbus A321-200 (+ 2 Orders)
- 21 Airbus A320-200
- 07 Airbus A319-100