TACA Airlines flights or the TransportesAereosdelContinente Americano, formerly known as TACA International, is the airline company founded in 1931. This airline company has its hub at El Salvador International Airport. It is an airline company owned by Kingsland holdings based in El Salvador. It currently operates as the flag carrier of El Salvador. Avianca El Salvador is one of the seven nationally branded airlines in the Avianca group of Latin American airlines.

TACA owned five other airline companies in Central America, and it expanded to North, Central, Caribbean and South America. On October 7 2009, they announced that TACA would merge with Avianca. However, it maintained its name until it completed the official merger on May 21 2013. This was the second oldest operating airline brand in the Caribbean and Central America.

History

TACA was founded in Honduras by Lowell Yerex, who hailed from New Zealand. This airline began its operations with a single-engine Stinson plane. The routes covered all the national territory since its beginnings, and the aircraft also sported the XH Mexican registration. The idea was to establish one airline in each Latin-American country. The airlines were AeroviasBrasil in Brazil and other TACAs in Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico.

During the 1940s and 1950s, this airline started acquiring larger piston-engine airliners, including the Douglas DC-4 and Douglas DC-3. On December 28 1966, TACA international entered their jet age, and it also inaugurated its first jet, a BAC One Eleven, a famous twin jet aeroplane. The aircraft model was also used until June 1 1988. It then phases out in favour of the Boeing 737-200.

Expansion years 1980-2009

A United States company owned TACA until 1980. It also had its corporate headquarters in New Orleans under the administration of the Kriete Family of El Salvador. They held a minority stock and also ended up buying all the shares.

This air carrier was operating jet service to 4 destinations in the US from Central America, including Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans and Houston, according to July 1983 TACA route map. It made several upgrades to its fleet during the 1980s. It replaced all the older turboprops and BAC One Eleven jetliners with Boeing 737-200 Advanced and 737-300. The latter one is the member of the Boeing 737 Classic. The airline company also operated wide-body Boeing 767s on its scheduled passenger services. It also started its international flights to Los Angeles and Miami.

TACA bought the majority shares of flag carrier airline, Aviateca between 1990 and 1995. It also consolidated all operations under a new brand group, Grupo TACA.

TACA also became the launch customer and the principal user of the Airbus A320 in Latin America. This airline company also signed a strategic alliance with Panama-based Copa Airlines, and it began flying to Tocumen International airport. This made TACA the first flight connection centre in Latin America. Thus, Tocumen airport became the ‘Hub of the Americas’.

AviancaTACA and Modernization.

It was announced on October 7, 2009, that TACA International would merge all its assets in a strategic alliance with the Colombian flag carrier Avianca. TACA International and Avianca operated a combined fleet of 129 aircraft, and they served over 100 destinations in several countries in Europe and America.

Star Alliance

On November 10, 2010, The Star Alliance announced that TACA international and Avianca would become full members in the mid-2012s.

Completion or merger and final flight.

On May 20 2013, TACA International started removing all its signs bearing the TACA logo from airports across Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, South America, US and Canada. The last flight departed San Saldador at 7.50Pm MST and it landed in New York at 2.35Am EST. This flight landed two hours and thirty-five minutes after the official rebranding of the airlines. Thus, it departed with the TACA callsign and it landed with the Avianca callsign.