Isleña de Inversiones S.A. de C.V. branded Avianca Honduras was an

regional airline A regional airline is a general classification of airline which typically operates scheduled passenger air service, using regional aircraft, between communities lacking sufficient demand or infrastructure to attract mainline flights. In North ...

based in

San Pedro Sula San Pedro Sula () is the capital of Cortés Department, Honduras. It is located in the northwest corner of the country in the Sula Valley, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Puerto Cortés on the Caribbean Sea. With a population of 671,460 ...

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

. It offered mostly scheduled and chartered passenger flights out of its hub at

Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport ( es, Aeropuerto Internacional Ramón Villeda Morales) , also known as La Mesa International Airport, is located southeast of the city of San Pedro Sula, in the Cortés Department of Honduras. The ...

. It was one of the most successful airlines in the country and in the Central American region, as it was part of Grupo TACA. It was one of the seven nationally branded airlines (

Avianca Costa Rica Avianca Costa Rica S.A., formerly known as LACSA (''Spanish: Lineas Aéreas Costarricenses S.A.''), minority owned by the Synergy Group, is the national airline of Costa Rica and is based in San José. It operates international scheduled servic ...

Avianca Ecuador Avianca Ecuador S.A. (formerly known as AeroGal) is an airline based in Quito, Ecuador. It operates passenger and cargo flights within Ecuador, between the mainland and the Galápagos Islands, and between Ecuador and Colombia (on behalf of Avianc ...

, etc.) in the

Avianca Group Avianca Group International Limited (formerly Avianca Holdings S.A. and AviancaTaca Holding Inc.) is a pan-regional Latin American multinational airline holding company with its registered office in St Albans, England, and its global headquarters ...

of Latin American airlines.

History

ATR 42-320, TACA Regional Airlines (Islena Airlines) JP7398563

The airline was founded as Isleña Airlines in 1981 by Arturo Alvarado Wood in the city of

La Ceiba La Ceiba () is a municipality, the capital of the Honduran department of Atlántida (department), Atlántida and a port city on the northern coast of Honduras in Central America. It is located on the southern edge of the Caribbean, forming part ...

. It began operations on March 31, 1981 with a

Cessna 206 The Cessna 205, 206, and 207, known primarily as the Stationair (and marketed variously as the Super Skywagon, Skywagon and Super Skylane) are a family of single-engined, general aviation aircraft with fixed landing gear, used in commercial air ...

between La Ceiba and

Roatán Roatán () is an island in the Caribbean, about off the northern coast of Honduras. It is located between the islands of Utila and Guanaja, and is the largest of the Bay Islands of Honduras. The island was formerly known in English as Ruatan ...

. Their central office was formerly located in

and its hub at

Golosón International Airport Golosón International Airport ( es, link=no, Aeropuerto Internacional Golosón) is an airport located on the western side of the city of La Ceiba, in the Atlántida Department on the north coast of Honduras. It is also known as La Ceiba Air ...

. In 1998,

Grupo TACA Transportes Aereos del Continente Americano, (''Air Transports of the American Continent'', known and branded formerly as TACA International), operating as Avianca El Salvador, is an airline owned by Kingsland Holdings based in El Salvador. As T ...

acquired a 20% stake in the company, and began operating under the ''TACA Regional'' banner.Information about Isleña Airlines at the Aero Transport Data Bank
/ref> In 2014, Isleña was unified with the rest of TACA's subsidiaries into the

Avianca Holdings Avianca Group International Limited (formerly Avianca Holdings S.A. and AviancaTaca Holding Inc.) is a pan-regional Latin American multinational airline holding company with its registered office in St Albans, England, and its global headquarter ...

, being renamed ''Avianca Honduras''. By October 2018, Avianca Honduras had suspended its routes until further notice. In March 2020, the airline retired is remaining aircraft and transferred its operations to

Avianca Avianca S.A. (acronym in Spanish for ''Aerovias del Continente Americano S.A.'', "Airways of the American Continent") is a Colombian airline. It has been the flag carrier of Colombia since December 5, 1919, when it was initially registered under ...

Destinations

As of March 2020, Avianca Honduras operated to the following destinations: Further destinations were served by chartered flights.

Fleet

Avianca ATR-72 at Roatán Airport, 12-2014 (cropped)

Throughout is existence as Isleña Airlines, the airline operated the following aircraft: *7

ATR 42-300 The ATR 42 is a regional airliner produced by Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR, with final assembly in Toulouse, France. On 4 November 1981, the aircraft was launched with ATR, as a joint venture between French Aérospatiale (now Airbus) and Ae ...

ATR 42-320 The ATR 42 is a regional airliner produced by Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR, with final assembly in Toulouse, France. On 4 November 1981, the aircraft was launched with ATR, as a joint venture between French Aérospatiale (now Airbus) and Ae ...

ATR 72-600 The ATR 72 is a twin-engine turboprop, short-haul regional airliner developed and produced in France and Italy by aircraft manufacturer ATR (french: Avions de transport régional or it, Aerei da Trasporto Regionale), a joint venture formed by ...

Beechcraft 90 The Beechcraft King Air is a line of American utility aircraft produced by Beechcraft. The King Air line comprises a number of twin-turboprop models that have been divided into two families. The Model 90 and 100 series developed in the 1960s ...

Beechcraft 99 The Beechcraft Model 99 is a civilian aircraft produced by Beechcraft. It is also known as the Beech 99 Airliner and the Commuter 99. The 99 is a twin-engine, unpressurized, 15 to 17 passenger seat turboprop aircraft, derived from the earlier Be ...

Boeing 737-200 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton Factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the Boeing 707, 7 ...

de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter The de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter is a Canadian STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) utility aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada, which produced the aircraft from 1965 to 1988; Viking Air purchased the type certificate, then restarted ...

Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante The Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante (English: ''pioneer'') is a Brazilian general purpose 15–21 passenger twin-turboprop light transport aircraft designed by Embraer for military and civil use. The EMB 110 was designed by the French engineer Max Ho ...

Fokker F27 Friendship The Fokker F27 Friendship is a turboprop airliner developed and manufactured by the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. It is the most numerous post-war aircraft manufactured in the Netherlands; the F27 was also one of the most successful Europe ...

Fairchild Hiller FH-227 The Fairchild F-27 and Fairchild Hiller FH-227 were versions of the Fokker F27 Friendship twin-engined turboprop passenger aircraft manufactured under license by Fairchild Hiller in the United States. The Fairchild F-27 was similar to the standa ...

Grumman Gulfstream I The Grumman Gulfstream I (company designation G-159) is a twin-turboprop business aircraft. It first flew on August 14, 1958. Design and development After first rejecting an idea to develop the Grumman Widgeon as an executive transport, the comp ...

Short 360 The Short 360 (also SD3-60; also Shorts 360)Mondey, David. ''Encyclopedia of the World's Commercial and Private Aircraft''. New York: Crescent Books, 1981. , p. 228. is a commuter aircraft that was built by UK manufacturer Short Brothers during ...

Let L410 Turbolet The Let L-410 Turbolet is a twin-engine short-range transport aircraft, manufactured by the Czech Republic, Czech aircraft manufacturer Let Kunovice (named Aircraft Industries since 2005), often used as an airliner. The aircraft is capable of lan ...

Accidents and incidents

*On April 4, 1990, a

(registered HR-ALH) landed in the water short off the runway at

Útila Airport Útila Airport is an airport serving Útila, Islas de la Bahía, Honduras. It handles regional and international air traffic for the town of Útila. The airport is served by several airlines on a daily schedule, as well as numerous private a ...

, following a scheduled passenger flight from La Ceiba with 18 passengers on board. The two pilots claimed to have been blinded by the sun, thus misjudging the remaining distance to the runway. All occupants of the aircraft could be saved. *On March 3, 1997, a

(registered HR-IAS) did not gain sufficient height upon take-off from

for a scheduled flight to

Puerto Lempira Puerto Lempira or Auhya Yari is the Miskito capital of the Gracias a Dios department in northeastern Honduras, located on the shores of the Caratasca Lagoon. Though it does not have paved roads, it is the largest town in the La Mosquitia regio ...

with 19 passengers on board. Following the retraction of the landing gear, the two pilots had applied a wrong engine power setup, and were forced to bring the aircraft down again in a

belly landing A belly landing or gear-up landing occurs when an aircraft lands without its landing gear fully extended and uses its underside, or belly, as its primary landing device. Normally the term ''gear-up landing'' refers to incidents in which the pilot ...

, during which it was damaged beyond repair.1997 accident at the Aviation Safety Network
/ref>

References

External links