Isleña de Inversiones S.A. de C.V. branded Avianca Honduras was an regional airline based in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. It offered mostly scheduled and chartered passenger flights out of its hub at Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport. 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 Ecuador, etc.) in the Avianca Group 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 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 of the south eastern bo ...

. It began operations on March 31, 1981 with a Cessna 206 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. 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, 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 und ...

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 A ...

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 A ...

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 ...

*1 Beechcraft 90 *1

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 Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two u ...

*1 Cessna 206 *2 de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter *5

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 ...

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 Eur ...

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 ...

*4 Let L410 Turbolet.

Accidents and incidents

*On April 4, 1990, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter (registered HR-ALH) landed in the water short off the runway at Útila Airport, 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 Let L410 Turbolet (registered HR-IAS) did not gain sufficient height upon take-off from Golosón International Airport for a scheduled flight to Puerto Lempira 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, during which it was damaged beyond repair.1997 accident at the Aviation Safety Network
/ref>

References

External links