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| Founded | 1945 | |||
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| Hubs | Juan Santamaría International Airport | |||
| Frequent-flyer program | LifeMiles Distancia (retired) LacsaPASS (retired) |
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| Alliance | TACA Airlines | |||
| Fleet size | 19 | |||
| Destinations | 35 | |||
| Parent company | TACA Airlines | |||
| Headquarters | San José, Costa Rica | |||
| Key people | Roberto Kriete (CEO) Fabio Villegas (president of HOLDCO) |
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| Website | www.taca.com | |||
Lacsa (Spanish: Lineas Aéreas Costarricenses S.A.), is the national airline of Costa Rica and is based in San José. It operates international scheduled services to over 35 destinations in Central, North and South America. All international services are now operated by Grupo TACA.[1][2][3] Out of the five airlines that made up the original TACA alliance, Lacsa is the only airline of the group that still operates international flights with its own IATA code (LR) and flight numbers. As a subsidiary of Grupo TACA, the airline is also known as TACA/LACSA.
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Lacsa was established on 17 October 1945 by Pan American World Airways, the Costa Rican government and Costa Rican private interests. It started operations on 1 June 1946 and was designated the national carrier in 1949. Its domestic network was transferred to wholly owned subsidiary Sansa in September 1959. The airline is owned by individual shareholders (86.98%), Grupo TACA (10%) and ASA Lacsa, the employees saving association (3.02%). Since 1999, the five airlines in the alliance began flying under the TACA logo, with a new corporate identity represented by five stylized golden macaws flying in tight formation.[4][5] In 2008 a new TACA brand logo was introduced [6] followed by a new fleet of Embraer 190 airplanes registered in Costa Rica for strategic reasons and operated under the Lacsa code.[7]
As of January 2005 Lacsa operated services to the following international scheduled destinations: Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Guatemala City, Guayaquil, Havana, Lima, Los Angeles, Managua, Medellin, Mexico City, Miami, New York, Panama City, Quito, Santo Domingo, San Salvador, San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa, Toronto.
Lacsa services used to be flown exclusively by Airbus A320 family aircraft drawn from the pooled fleet of Grupo TACA. Since 2008, a new fleet of Embraer 190 was introduced, flying under the renewed TACA logo.[8]
Lacsa's fleet consists of the following aircraft (at 12 August 2010):[9]
| Aircraft | Total | Orders | Passengers | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | Y | Total | ||||
| Airbus A319-100 | 4 | — | 12 | 108 | 120 | |
| Airbus A320-200 | 9 | — | 12 | 138 | 150 | |
| Airbus A321-200 | 2 | — | 12 | 182 | 194 | |
| Embraer 190 | 6 | — | 8 | 88 | 96 | |
On May 23, 1988 a leased Boeing 727-100 (TI-LRC) operating the route San Jose-Managua-Miami, collided with a fence at the end of the runway in the Juan Santamaria International Airport, crashed at a nearby field next to a highway, and caught fire. The excess of weight in the front part of the airplane was the cause of the accident. There were no fatalities out of the 23 occupants.
On 11 January 1998, an Airbus A320 veered off a runway at San Francisco International Airport during the takeoff roll. The aircraft left the runway at full speed, coming to rest in a field of mud. The runway was closed after the incident, leading to delays at the airport. None of the 122 passengers on board the aircraft sustained injuries, and stayed at a hotel until another aircraft could transport them to their destination, San Jose, in Costa Rica. The cause of the incident was not determined.[10]
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