Transportes Aéreos Nacionales SA, also known as TAN Airlines, was a Honduran airline, headquartered at the Edificio TAN in

Tegucigalpa Tegucigalpa ( )—formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz''—is the capital and largest city of Honduras along with its sister city, Comaya ...

. The carrier was set up in 1947 and merged into SAHSA, another Honduran airline, in .

History

The airline was formed in 1947 by private investors to operate cargo flights by contract. In 1950, the company started scheduled passenger and cargo services. At , the fleet consisted of three

C-46 The Curtiss C-46 Commando is a low-wing, twin-engine aircraft derived from the Curtiss CW-20 pressurized high-altitude airliner design. Early press reports used the name "Condor III" but the Commando name was in use by early 1942 in company p ...

s serving a route network that was long. In 1967, TAN and LANICA agreed to operate LANICA's single BAC One-Eleven 400 jet on a joint basis; the joint operation of the aircraft started on . Douglas DC-6A HR-TNQ TAN MIA 25

The airline acquired a

Douglas DC-6 The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1946 to 1958. Originally intended as a military transport near the end of World War II, Douglas reworked it after the war to compete ...

A freighter aircraft in March 1973 and operated it until its sale in September 1979, using it particularly on their route to

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

. In , TAN acquired

Pan Am Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and more commonly known as Pan Am, was an airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States for ...

's 38% holding in SAHSA. According to the

Official Airline Guide OAG is a global travel data provider with headquarters in the UK. The company was founded in 1929 and operates in the United States, Singapore, Japan, Lithuania and China. It has a large network of flight information data including schedules, ...

( OAG), TAN was operating a

Convair 880 The Convair 880 is a retired American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body jet airliner produced by the Convair division of General Dynamics. It was designed to compete with the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 by being smaller but faster, a niche that f ...

jet in 1972 on flights to Miami. An ex- Pluna

Boeing 737-200 The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retained the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating ...

jet was incorporated into the fleet in . The aircraft was part of the fleet by , along with one DC-6B and two

Lockheed L-188 Electra The Lockheed L-188 Electra is an American turboprop airliner built by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed. First flown in 1957, it was the first large turboprop airliner built in the United States. With its fairly high power-to-weight ratio, huge pro ...

turboprops; at this time, the airline had 400 employees. According to the OAG, in 1980 TAN was serving Miami nonstop from Belize City and San Pedro Sula as well as operating direct flights to Miami from La Ceiba and Tegucigalpa primarily with the Boeing 737-200 with some passenger flights being operated with the Lockheed L-188 Electra. In , the company experienced its worst accident when a Boeing 727-200 crashed on approach to Toncontín Airport, killing 131 occupants on board. On 1 November 1991, TAN Airlines merged with SAHSA, adopting the latter name.

Destinations

Transportes Aéreos Nacionales served the following destinations all through its history: ;Belize *

Belize City Belize City is the largest city in Belize. It was once the capital city, capital of the former British Honduras. According to the 2022 census, Belize City has a population of 63,999 people. It is at the mouth of the Haulover Creek, which is a ...

Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport ;Honduras *

La Ceiba La Ceiba () is a municipality, the capital of the Honduran department of Atlántida (department), Atlántida, and a port city on the northern Caribbean coast in Honduras. It forms part of the southeastern boundary of the Gulf of Honduras. With ...

Golosón International Airport *

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 701, ...

Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport *

Toncontín International Airport ;Mexico * Mexico D.F.

Mexico City International Airport Mexico City International Airport (); officially ''Aeropuerto Internacional Benito Juárez'' (Benito Juárez International Airport) is the primary international airport serving Greater Mexico City. It is the List of the busiest airports in Me ...

;United States *Miami

Miami International Airport Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically as Wilcox Field, is the primary international airport serving Miami and its Miami metropolitan area, surrounding metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of Florida. It hosts over 1, ...

Accidents and incidents

, '' Aviation Safety Network'' recorded six accidents or incidents for Transportes Aéreos Nacionales, totalling at least 138 fatalities. The worst accident in the airline's history occurred in , when a

Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavier Boeing 707, 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter ...

crashed on approach to Toncontín Airport in

, killing 131 of 146 occupants of the aircraft. , the accident remains the deadliest one to occur on Honduran soil. Following is a list of accidents/incidents experienced by the carrier; the list includes events in which there were fatalities, the aircraft involved resulted damaged beyond repair, or both.

Bibliography

* Roach, J and Eastwood, A.B., Piston Engined Airliner Production List, The Aviation Hobby Shop, West Drayton, Middlesex, 2007, ISBN None.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Transportes Aereos Nacionales Defunct airlines of Honduras SAHSA Airlines established in 1947 Airlines disestablished in 1991

History

Destinations

Accidents and incidents

See also

Bibliography

References