Grupo TACA

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TACA

IATA TA	ICAO TAI	Callsign TACA
Founded		1931
Hubs		Comalapa Int'l Airport Jorge Chávez Int'l Airport Juan Santamaría Int'l Airport La Aurora Int'l Ramón Villeda M. Int'l Airport
Frequent flyer program		Distancia
Member lounge		Salones VIP
Fleet size		30 (+20)
Destinations		50
Parent company		Grupo TACA
Headquarters		San Salvador, El Salvador
Key people		Roberto Kriete (CEO), Kriete Family (Owner)
Website: http://www.taca.com

Grupo TACA is a group of five Latin American airlines combined which make the flag airline of El Salvador. Originally an acronym of Transportes Aéreos Centroamericanos (Central American Air Transport), it now stands for Transportes Aéreos del Continente Americano (American Continent Air Transport), reflecting its expansion to North and South America. It flies to 40 different countries.

The five airlines are:

Lacsa is the only airline of the group that operates flights with its own flight numbers. Its hub is at Juan Santamaría International Airport in San José, Costa Rica.

TACA Peru is now an important member of the group. Grupo TACA is also considering opening airlines in Panama, Argentina and Chile -- named "TACA Panama", "TACA Argentina" and "TACA Chile" respectively -- to compete with other large Latin American airline groups, including Copa Airlines, Aerolíneas Argentinas and the LAN Airlines group.

TACA's logo is five golden macaws, representing the five original constituent airlines. Each airline flies similar aircraft in similar paint schemes, but retains its own name on the fuselage.

TACA has scheduled flights to most major airports in the Western Hemisphere, but it also has charter flights from Juan Santamaría International Airport to Cancún International Airport and to San Andres, Colombia. Its three flight hubs or "Centros de Conexiones" are:^[1]

TACA owns Aeroman, an aircraft maintenance company, which has new state-of-the-art facilities consisting of a hangar, shops, and warehouses in Comalapa International Airport, San Salvador. Aeroman is one of the top three aircraft maintenance providers in the world.

TACA's headquarters is in San Salvador, El Salvador, moving from New Orleans in 1982.^[2] The company is owned by the Kriete family of San Salvador.

TACA's regional airlines system includes the following airlines:

1 History
2 Trivia
3 Destinations
4 Fleet
- 4.1 Current Fleet
- 4.2 Historic Fleet
5 Affinity programs
6 Incidents and Accidents
7 External links
8 References

[edit] History

TACA was founded in Honduras in 1931 by New Zealander Lowell Yerex. TACA was once the "world's largest cargo carrier."

[edit] Trivia

In the 1973 James Bond film: Live and Let Die, when James Bond (played by actor Roger Moore) and Solitaire (played by actress Jane Seymour) are leaving New Orleans International Airport (now Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport), a sign with TACA INTERNATIONAL is shown.

[edit] Destinations

Main Article: TACA destinations

Taca have a total of 50 destinations around the world.

[edit] Fleet

[edit] Current Fleet

As of August 2006 the TACA fleet includes ^[3] :

4 Airbus A321-200 (plus 2 on order)
26 Airbus A320-200 (plus 12 on order)
7 Airbus A319-100 (plus 6 on order)

The A321s are used in the higher density routes: San Salvador-Los Angeles, San Salvador-Washington, San Salvador-Guatemala, San Jose-San Salvador, San Jose-Panama City, San Jose-Bogota, etc.

The average fleet age is 4.7 years old in June 2006. ^[4]

[edit] Historic Fleet

TACA has operated some of the following types:

Stinson Reliant
Bellanca CH-400 Skyrocket (The Smithsonian keeps a photo of TACA's Bellanca)
Ford 5-AT Tri-Motor (The Smithsonian keeps one of TACA's actual Fords)
Douglas DC-4
Lockheed 18 Lodestar (The Houston Aeronautical Heritage Society keeps one of TACA's actual Lockheeds)
Vickers Viscount 768
BAC 1-11
Boeing 737
Boeing 767
Airbus A300

[edit] Affinity programs

Distancia is TACA's frequent flyer program. It also has a corporate incentive program called Avancia that can be converted 1-to-1 to Distancia miles.

In addition to earning miles on TACA and TACA Regional flights, TACA has partnerships with the following airlines:

TACA previously code-shared with its One World Alliance partner, American Airlines, but abandoned in favor of United.

[edit] Incidents and Accidents

May 24, 1988, New Orleans, Louisiana, Boeing 737-3T0: A double engine flameout due to water ingestion, a result of an inflight encounter with an area of very heavy rain and hail. The design of the engines and FAA water ingestion certification standards did not take account of the waterfall rates that can be expected in moderate or higher intensity thunderstorms.

NTSB Report