Lacsa
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| Founded | 1945 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hubs | Juan Santamaría International Airport | |||
| Frequent-flyer program | LifeMiles | |||
| Alliance | Star Alliance | |||
| Fleet size | 21 | |||
| Destinations | 35 | |||
| Parent company | Avianca | |||
| Headquarters | San José, Costa Rica | |||
| Key people |
Roberto Kriete (CEO) Fabio Villegas Ramírez (Chairman & CEO of Holding Company) | |||
| Website | www.taca.com | |||
Lacsa (Spanish: Lineas Aéreas Costarricenses S.A.), minoroty owned by Avianca, 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.[citation needed] As a subsidiary of Grupo TACA, the airline is also known as TACA/LACSA. Since May 2013 Lacsa is owned by Avianca which bought Grupo TACA.
History
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.
Lacsa operated the Douglas DC-6B four-engined piston airliner from 1960 until 1976 on their regular passenger and latterly freight scheduled flights to Miami International Airport. The airline introduced the first of their British Aircraft Corporation BAC One-Eleven twin-engined jet airliners onto their Caribbean passenger route network in April 1967.[4]
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.[5][6] In 2008 a new TACA brand logo was introduced [7] followed by a new fleet of Embraer 190 airplanes registered in Costa Rica for strategic reasons and operated under the Lacsa code.[8]
Destinations
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Fleet
Lacsa services used to be flown exclusively by Airbus A320 family aircraft drawn from the pooled fleet of Grupo TACA.[citation needed] Since 2008, a new fleet of Embraer 190 was introduced, flying under the renewed TACA logo.[9]
Current
| 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 | |
| Total | 21 | 0 | ||||
Retired
- DC-3
- C-46
- C-45
- CV-340
- Douglas DC-6B
- BAC One-Eleven
- Boeing 727-200
- Boeing 737-200
Lacsa Cargo retired
- L-188
- DC-8
Incidents
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.[citation needed]
On 11 January 1998, Lacsa flight 691,[10] 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, reducing take-off capacity by 50 percent, leading to massive 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.[11]
References
- ↑ "Our History". Grupo TACA. Retrieved 2010-10-21.
- ↑ "LACSA Lineas Aéreas Costarricenses – Details and Fleet History". Planespotters.net. Retrieved 2010-10-21.
- ↑ "LACSA". Airfleets.net. Retrieved 2010-10-21.
- ↑ Eastwood & Roach, 2004, p. 170
- ↑ Rohter, Larry (1998-04-15). "A Home-Grown Giant Of Central America". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-10-21.
- ↑ "Grupo TACA: Company history". Fundinguniverse. Retrieved 2010-10-21.
- ↑ "Taca lanza nueva imagen y servicios" (in Spanish). La Nacion (Costa Rica). 2008-09-25. Retrieved 2009-10-21.
- ↑ "TACA renueva flota para vuelos al Istmo" (in Spanish). La Nacion (Costa Rica). 2008-10-08. Retrieved 2009-10-21.
- ↑ Delivers First EMBRAER 190 Jet to TACA Airlines
- ↑ http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Airliner-speeds-off-runway-at-S-F-Airport-3110690.php
- ↑ "Airplane gets stuck in mud after veering off San Francisco runway at full speed". CJOnline.com. January 11, 1998. Retrieved 2009-05-17.
- Roach, J (2004). Jet Airliner Production List - Volume 2. The Aviation Hobby Shop.
- Hardy, M. J. (October 1969). "Aviation in Costa Rica". Air Pictorial 31 (10): pp. 362–365.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to LACSA. |
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