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
Focus cities / secondary hubs		Ramón Villeda M. Int'l Airport La Aurora Int'l Airport
Frequent flyer program		Distancia
Member lounge		Salones VIP
Fleet size		30 (+20)
Destinations		40-50
Parent company		Grupo TACA
Headquarters		San Salvador, El Salvador
Key people		Roberto Kriete (CEO), Kriete Family (Owner)
Website: http://www.taca.com

TACA is an airline in Central America based in El Salvador. Originally the name stood for Transportes Aéreos Centroamericanos (English: Central American Air Transport). It is a holding name covering five airlines that form Grupo Taca. Due to its expansion to South America, which meant flying within the three Americas its new slogan name is Transportes Aéreos del Continente Americano (English: American Continent Air Transport).It currently flies in 40 diffrent countries.

The five airlines of the group are:

Lacsa is the only airline of the group that still operate flights on their flight numbers. Their 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; these would be 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.

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:

TACA owns an aircraft maintenance company called Aeroman which has it's newly built state of the art facilities consisting of a hangar, shops, and warehouses in Comalapa International Airport. Is one of the three best aircraft mainteiners in the world.

TACA's headquarters are in San Salvador, El Salvador. The company is owned by the Kriete family of San Salvador.

TACA also has a regional airlines system which includes the following airlines:

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

[edit] History

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

A little known fact is that, during the 1940s, TACA also operated an airline named "TACA Venezuela".

[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 (today known as Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport) a sign with TACA INTERNATIONAL is shown in the movie.

[edit] Destinations

See full article: TACA destinations.Not completed More U.S. cities also flies to Japan, China, South America and Europe.

[edit] Fleet

[edit] Current Fleet

As of August 2006 the TACA fleet includes ^[1] :

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

TACA average fleet age is 4.7 years old in June 2006. ^[2]

[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. TACA also has a corporate incentive program called AVANCE 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: