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 A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by the government for international operations. His ...

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

and is based in San José. It operates international scheduled services to over 35 destinations in Central, North and South America. The airline previously used the TACA/LACSA moniker when it was a subsidiary of

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 ...

. Since May 2013, following Avianca's purchase of Grupo TACA, Avianca Costa Rica became one of seven nationally branded airlines (

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 Avian ...

Avianca Honduras 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. ...

, etc.) operated by

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

LACSA was formed in October 17, 1945, with the help of

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

, and started operations in June 1, 1946, using

Douglas DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper versi ...

s for local services within Costa Rica,Endres 1979, p.362 operating as an affiliate of Pan Am. The airline was designated as Costa Rica's

Flag carrier A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by the government for international operations. Hi ...

in 1949. It was

nationalized Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to p ...

in 1958. LACSA operated the

Douglas DC-6B 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, it was reworked after the war to compete with ...

four-engined piston airliner from 1960 until 1976 on their regular passenger, and eventually freight, scheduled flights to Miami International Airport. The airline introduced the first of their

BAC One-Eleven The BAC One-Eleven (or BAC-111/BAC 1-11) was an early jet airliner produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Originally conceived by Hunting Aircraft as a 30-seat jet, before its merger into BAC in 1960, it was launched as an 80-se ...

twin-engined jet airliners onto their Caribbean passenger route network in April 1967. The airline also operated a subsidiary in the

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the ...

Cayman Brac Airways Cayman Airways is the flag carrier airline of the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands. With its head office in Grand Cayman, it operates mainly as an international and domestic scheduled passenger carrier, with cargo services avai ...

(CBA) Ltd., which it sold a 51% controlling interest in the late 1960s to the Cayman Islands government which in turn used the air carrier to form

Cayman Airways Cayman Airways is the flag carrier airline of the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands. With its head office in Grand Cayman, it operates mainly as an international and domestic scheduled passenger carrier, with cargo services avai ...

. LACSA served

Grand Cayman Grand Cayman is the largest of the three Cayman Islands and the location of the territory's capital, George Town. In relation to the other two Cayman Islands, it is approximately 75 miles (121 km) southwest of Little Cayman and 90 miles (1 ...

for many years as an intermediate stop on its services between San José, Costa Rica and Miami. Beginning 1998, TACA/LACSA was one of the member airlines comprising the TACA Airlines alliance along with Aviateca of Guatemala, Nica of Nicaragua, Isleña of Honduras, and five other regional airlines. In 2008, a new fleet of

Embraer 190 The Embraer E-Jet family is a series of four-abreast narrow-body short- to medium-range twin-engine jet airliners designed and produced by the Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer. The E-Jet was designed as a complement to the preceding ...

jets was introduced. Also in 2008 a new TACA logo was introduced, followed by a new fleet of Embraer 190 airplanes registered in Costa Rica and operated under the LACSA code. In 2009, Aerovías del Continente Americano S.A. (Avianca) and TACA announced their merger plans to be completed in 2010. By 2013, the airlines began operating as a single commercial brand using the Avianca name.

Destinations

LACSA international destinations in 1973

According to the May 31, 1973 LACSA system timetable, the airline was serving the following international destinations: * Barranquilla, Colombia *

Caracas, Venezuela Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

* Maracaibo, Venezuela *

Mexico City, Mexico Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley of Me ...

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

Panama City, Panama Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is loca ...

* San Andres Island, Colombia *

San José, Costa Rica San José (; meaning "Saint Joseph") is the capital city, capital and largest city of Costa Rica, and the capital of San José Province, the province of the same name. It is in the center of the country, in the mid-west of the Costa Rican Cen ...

- ''Hub and airline headquarters'' *

San Salvador, El Salvador San Salvador (; ) is the capital and the largest city of El Salvador and its eponymous department. It is the country's political, cultural, educational and financial center. The Metropolitan Area of San Salvador, which comprises the capital it ...

This same timetable states that all international flights were being operated with

British Aircraft Corporation The British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) was a British aircraft manufacturer formed from the government-pressured merger of English Electric Aviation Ltd., Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), the Bristol Aeroplane Company and Hunting Aircraft in 19 ...

twin jets at this time with the exception of the San José-San Andres Island route which was being flown with a

Convair 440 The Convair CV-240 is an American airliner that Convair manufactured from 1947 to 1954, initially as a possible replacement for the ubiquitous Douglas DC-3. Featuring a more modern design with cabin pressurization, the 240 series made some inro ...

propliner.

International routes in 1984

The airline was operating to such international destinations in 1984 as: *Barranquilla, Colombia * Cancun, Mexico *Caracas, Venezuela *

Guatemala City, Guatemala Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, nest ...

Guayaquil, Ecuador , motto = Por Guayaquil Independiente en, For Independent Guayaquil , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Ecuador#South America , pushpin_re ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

, USA *Maracaibo, Venezuela *Mexico City, Mexico *Miami, USA *

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

, USA *Panama City, Panama *

Quito, Ecuador Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley on ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, Brazil *

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the ...

*San Salvador, El Salvador These cities were flown to using LACSA’s Boeing 727.

Fleet

Current

TACA Airbus CRI flag (LACSA) SJO 04 2005

Avianca_Airbus_A320_N493TA_(40154574954)

Avianca Costa Rica N493TA, El Salvador International Airport

As of December 2022, Avianca Costa Rica consists of the following aircraft:

Former

LACSA operated the following aircraft:

Accidents and incidents

*On May 23, 1988, a leased

Boeing 727-100 The Boeing 727 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavy Boeing 707, 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter f ...

(registered TI-LRC), operating the route San José-Managua-Miami, collided with a fence at the end of the runway in the Juan Santamaría 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. *On 11 January 1998, LACSA flight 691, an

Airbus A320-200 Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: '' ...

, veered off a runway at

San Francisco International Airport San Francisco International Airport is an international airport in an unincorporated area of San Mateo County, south of Downtown San Francisco. It has flights to points throughout North America and is a major gateway to Europe, the Middl ...

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,

. The cause of the incident was not determined.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * *

External links

TACA Official websiteFrom LACSA to TACA to Avianca, 28 May 2013
{{Avianca Airlines established in 1945 Airlines of Costa Rica Avianca Grupo TACA