Aviateca

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Aviateca was the state airline of Guatemala, based in Guatemala City. It is now a subsidiary of Grupo TACA of El Salvador.

1 Code Data
2 History
3 Incidents and accidents
4 Fleet
5 External links
6 References

[edit] Code Data

IATA Code: GU
ICAO Code: GUG
Callsign: Aviateca

[edit] History

The airline was established on 14 March 1945 as Empresa Guatemalteca de Aviacion S. A., which was shortened to Aviateca. It was formed as the successor to Aerovias de Guatemala, which had been founded in 1929. Aviateca started operations in March 1946 and early aircraft operated by the carrier included the Douglas DC-3. In 1961, service to the United States (Miami) was originated with four engined Douglas DC-6 airliners. Convair 340/440 twin engined medium airliners were also acquired to replace the DC-3's on routes in Latin America. Aviateca was a customer for the British Aerospace BAC 1-11 medium twin jet in 1970, and later acquired Boeing 727 and Boeing 737 jet transports.

Aviateca had come under government ownership and remained so until 1989 when it joined the TACA organised Airline Alliance of Central America and was privatised. It has now been fully integrated into TACA.

The aircraft were referred to by locals as "las papayas voladores" (the flying papayas) due to the paint scheme used during the 1970s, in which the underbelly was painted a reddish orange. As of this date, Aviateca still has a TACA aircraft with the Aviateca Logo, Airbus A319. Also, one of TACA's ATR-42 has the AVIATECA logo on it.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Incidents and accidents

The 1977 Guatemala City air disaster, which killed 28 people.
On August 9, 1995, at approximately 2014 local time (0214 UTC August 10, 1995), a Boeing 737-200 was destroyed on impact with terrain 15 miles northeast of San Salvador International Airport, San Salvador. The flight (Flight GUG901) was on an instrument flight plan operating in instrument conditions when it collided with the side of the San Vicente (Chichontepec) volcano. The aircraft was being operated by AVIATECA, SA., the national airline of Guatemala. All of the 7 crew members and 58 passengers were fatally injured. The flight, operating as AVIATECA Flight 901 (GU901), was on an IFR flight plan from La Aurora International Airport, Guatemala City, Guatemala to San Salvador International Airport, San Salvador, El Salvador. Severe weather existed at the time of the 14 CFR 129 flight and the aircraft had deviated from airway G436 to the north to avoid thunderstorms. The aircraft was owned by CIT Leasing Corporation and leased to AVIATECA, S.A.^[1]^[2]