TACA
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TACA is an airline in Central America. Its name stands for Transportes Aéreos Centroamericanos, or Central American Air Transport. Grupo TACA, as it was formerly known, was created by a merger between five national airlines in the 1980s:
- Aviateca (Guatemala)
- Lacsa (Costa Rica)
- Nica (Nicaragua)
- Sahsa (Honduras)
- TACA (El Salvador)
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:
- Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, Peru
- Comalapa International Airport in San Salvador, El Salvador
- Juan Santa Maria International Airport in San José, Costa Rica.
History
TACA was founded in Honduras in 1931 by New Zealander Lowell Yerex. According to Time Magazine, 31 December 1945 (http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,886786,00.html.com), 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.
Fleet
As of 2005, TACA's jet fleet is made up exclusively of Airbus A319 and A320 airplanes. As of March, 2005, TACA's in-flight magazine reported a jet fleet of 32 airplanes.
TACA's first airplane was a Stinson single-engined airplane. Other airplanes it has operated:
- BAC One-Eleven
- Boeing 737
- Boeing 767
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