Avianca (El Salvador)

Avianca El Salvador, formerly Transportes Aéreos del Continente Americano S.A. known simply as TACA, is a Salvadoran airline owned by Kingsland LTD. As of May 28, 2013, it operates under the trademark "Avianca", which is the flag carrier of Colombia. TACA was founded in 1931 in Honduras. As of June 21, 2012, TACA officially became a member of the Star Alliance. Until 2013 it was recognized as the second oldest airline in Central America and the Caribbean. On May 28, 2013, it completed its merger process with the Colombian airline Avianca.

TACA developed an extensive route network across the continent from a "multi-hub" served from three cities:

• San Salvador, El Salvador International Airport
• San José de Costa Rica, Juan Santamaría International Airport (closed in 2013 and reduced to "focus city")
• Lima, Jorge Chávez International Airport
• Bogota, El Dorado International Airport is no operating center founded by TACA, however, after the merger became the main point for Avianca Holdings.

The headquarters of Avianca in San Salvador.

History

Foundation of TACA and emergence of subsidiaries

TACA Airlines DC-4

TACA Air Cargo Lockheed L-188AF freighter in Miami in 1978

In the year 1931, TACA was founded as the company "Transportes Aéreos Centroamericanos" (TACA) in the city of Tegucigalpa, Republic of Honduras, by the captain of New Zealand origin Lowell Yerex, as a mixed service company (passengers and cargo). TACA began operations with a single-engine Stinson aircraft. Its routes covered the entire national territory and its aircraft bore the Mexican registration XH to be later changed to HR. In 1945 Yerex left the company and its headquarters moved to the Republic of El Salvador, where it was modernized and expanded until now. The company established investment groups in other Latin American countries, TACA Guatemala, TACA Honduras, TACA Costa Rica, TACA Airways Panamericana (Panama), Líneas Aéreas TACA Colombia, TACA Venezuela and Aerovías Brasil. to later be sold to national airlines; in the case of Honduras, TACA was sold to SAHSA.

TACA International Airlines El Salvador

TACA International Airlines Boeing 737-300 in the 90's.

TACA Airlines Boeing 767

Later, TACA was organized as an international company with its only headquarters in San Salvador under the name of TACA International. It developed large operations in the United States, mainly towards New Orleans, and the most important cities in Central America. It was fully acquired by the Kriete family, its operations were focused on El Salvador, consolidating itself as a strong competitor in the region. This even when El Salvador was in a strong civil armed conflict. In this period, TACA brought the jet and innovated in Latin America, being the first airline to operate Boeing 737 and Boeing 767 (TACA has been the only Central American and Caribbean airline to date to operate wide-body aircraft).

TACA Group

TACA Airbus A319 Group in Medellín, Colombia (2010).

TACA Group with special notebook "Guara Traviesa" in the framework of the 75th anniversary of the airline

Later, between 1989 and 1995, TACA developed a strategic alliance with Aviateca and Nica, airlines from Guatemala and Nicaragua, consolidating into Grupo TACA, at the same time that the SAHSA airline from Honduras disappeared for administrative reasons.

For more than 76 years, TACA functioned as the flag carrier of El Salvador, until in the 1990s, TACA bought the majority of shares of the other Central American airlines to later form Grupo TACA. The name “TACA” originates as Transportes Aéreos de Centro América and is later modified to Transportes Aéreos del Continente Americano.

Aviateca currently operates flights with its own license plate with manual ticket office on the routes that still belong to the Guatemalan airline; operating with ATR 72 and A319 although they fly with other license plates. After only three years of consolidating into Grupo TACA, the airline decided to renew its fleet and led the largest order of Airbus A319, A320 and A321 aircraft in history, together with TAM from Brazil and LAN from Chile. TACA had experience with Airbus because Lacsa operated A320 aircraft since 1990, being the first airline to incorporate these aircraft in America.

In 1992, Taca signed a strategic alliance with the Panamanian airline Copa Airlines, which became part of the group along with other Central American airlines such as LACSA from Costa Rica, Aviateca from Guatemala and Nica from Nicaragua. A main reason that led to the formation of the alliance is that Copa starts the operations of the first flight connection center within Latin America based in Panama, thus creating the "Hub of the Americas" at the Tocumen International Airport. The alliance was firm until the agreement expired in 1998.

Later, in 2001, having its main connection centers in San Salvador, El Salvador, and in San José, Costa Rica, Lima, Peru was incorporated as the equivalent for South America, through the integration of TACA Peru. With this new aggregation, Grupo TACA can offer a comprehensive network of routes throughout the American continent.

In 2005, TACA was one of the founding partners of the Mexican airline Volaris. It is important to note that in 2008, Roberto Kriete and the board of directors terminated the name “TACA Group”, a name that was used during the merger of LACSA, NICA, SAHSA and Aviateca. Reverted to original name, TACA Airlines.

TACA Airlines and Avianca-TACA alliance

TACA Airlines Airbus A320 in Los Angeles from San Salvador (SAL).

On October 7, 2009 TACA and Avianca announce a strategic alliance between both companies. The majority shareholders of Avianca and TACA have agreed to contribute their companies to the formation of a new Bahamas-based Holding Company. The participation will be approximately two thirds (67%) for Synergy Aerospace and one third (33%) for Grupo TACA Holdings; The shareholders have defined that the company's corporate governance model will be based on common agreement. An operations model of 4 hubs in Colombia, Peru, El Salvador and Costa Rica. Currently the main headquarters of operations of what was initially called AviancaTaca, today Avianca Holdings is located in Bogotá, Colombia. 10% of the shares of TACA Int. Airlines pass into the hands of Avianca with an option to purchase more shares in the future, although it does not mean that it has bought this airline.

The operating airlines TACA, LACSA, TACA Peru, Avianca, SAM, Tampa and regional will continue to operate according to their respective Certificates of Operation. The Avianca and TACA brands are valuable assets and considered important revenue generators, so they will remain separate in their respective markets. Subject to regulations and other approvals.

Avianca El Salvador

Avianca Airbus A319 with the new livery.

On October 10, 2012, it was reported at a press conference that the trade name TACA will disappear from aircraft and from promotion and marketing and will be replaced by Avianca, according to representatives of the group that controls those brands. Fabio Villegas, president of Avianca-TACA, explained that the use of the single brand for the group will take place in the first half of 2013. The airline assures that with this plan they will be the leaders in the entire region, in 2015.

The combination of these airlines will provide the largest route network in Latin America: 100 destinations in America and Europe, as well as a fleet of more than 150 aircraft. The Kriete family from El Salvador is the owner and majority shareholder of Grupo TACA. Since 2009, Avianca has owned 10% of the shares of TACA Int. Airlines, which makes Avianca the owner of 75% of AviancaTaca, today called Avianca Holdings, whose Chairman of the Board of Directors is currently Roberto Kriete.

Avianca is part of Avianca Holdings, this group is one of the most important in the aviation industry. Currently, the group of airlines that make up Avianca make it the second largest and most important airline in all of Latin America, with a presence in the vast majority of countries in the American and European continents. Avianca's main hubs are located in the cities of Bogotá, San Salvador and Lima and are the second most important international operators at Miami International Airport, only surpassed by American Airlines.

Fleet

The Avianca El Salvador fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Historical fleet

Other aircraft that were once part of the Avianca-TACA fleet were:

Destinations

Avianca El Salvador's operations center is the Monseñor Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez International Airport of El Salvador located in the Department of La Paz where it travels to the following destinations:

Countries	Destinations	Airports	Notes
North America
United States	Boston	Logan International Airport	Start in June 2023.
	Dallas	Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport
	Houston	George Bush Intercontinental Airport
	Los Angeles	Los Angeles International Airport
	Miami	Miami International Airport	Operates also from Guatemala City and Managua
	Newark	International Airport Freedom of Newark
	New York	John F. Kennedy International Airport
	Orlando	Orlando International Airport	Start in June 2023.
	San Francisco	San Francisco International Airport
	Washington D.C.	Washington-Dulles International Airport
Mexico Mexico	Cancun	Cancun International Airport
	Mexico City	International Airport of Mexico City
Central America and the Caribbean
BelizeBelize	Belize City	Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport
Costa RicaCosta Rica	San José	Juan Santamaría International Airport	Focus city
El SalvadorEl Salvador	San Salvador	International Airport of El Salvador	HUB
GuatemalaGuatemala	Guatemala City	La Aurora International Airport
HondurasHonduras	San Pedro Sula	International Airport Ramon Villeda Morales
	Tegucigalpa	Toncon International Airport
NicaraguaNicaragua	Managua	International Airport Augusto C. Sandino
Panama Panama	Panama City	International Airport of Tocumen
Puerto RicoPuerto Rico	San Juan	International Airport Luis Muñoz Marín
South America
ColombiaColombia	Bogotá	El Dorado International Airport
	Medellín	José María Córdova International Airport
EcuadorEcuador	Guayaquil	José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport
	Quito	Mariscal Sucre International Airport
Peru Peru	Lima	Jorge Chávez International Airport
24 international destinations. Updated in March 2023.

Maintenance

TACA founded Aeroman and is a minority owner since operational control was sold to Air Canada Technical Services ACTS. Its CEO, Eng. Ernesto Ruiz, has been in charge of this company for more than 20 years. Mr. Ruiz's leadership led from the construction of a single hangar with 25 people to an impressive growth of more than 1000 employees along with the construction of a new "state of the art" hangar, which together as Aeroman have now clients of world names, such as jetBlue, Us Airways, Southwest among others. To the globalized world the airline industry under the same sky, Ing Ruiz is the CEO of Aeromantenimiento S.A. and together with a team of excellent workers continues to lead and further expand the horizons of air maintenance

Aeroman is a maintenance base with certifications from European (JAA), Latin American (AAC, DGAC, etc.), and American (FAA) civil aviation entities. Aeroman was one of the initial eleven Airbus MRO Network maintenance bases worldwide and one of only three in the Americas ---Air Canada Technical Services; TACA Aeroman, El Salvador; and TIMCO Aviation Services, USA.

At Aeroman, a station classified as “heavy”, operations from light maintenance to "D" that involve the disassembly and verification of a large part of the airplanes

Aside from Taca, other Aeroman customers include Volaris, JetBlue, and US Airways.

San Salvador VIP Lounge

In 2015, Avianca inaugurated its VIP room at the El Salvador International Airport. The 720 square meter space has the capacity to serve 200 passengers simultaneously. Every day, Avianca serves 300 people among those who board the planes, arrive in the country or make connections at the Salvadoran airport

Acknowledgments

Avianca El Salvador has been recognized and nominated as the best airline in Central America and the Caribbean, winning SKYTRAX awards in the years: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015.

Image Gallery

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  TACA Airlines Airbus A320

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  Embraer 190 TACA

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  One of the TACA Airbus A320 in San Salvador