TACA, founded in 1931 by an eyepatch adorned New Zealander,Lowell Yerex, comprised airlines in several Central American nations.
Sometime around the 1960s or "70s, I believe, TACA was based in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. The pilots were organized by US ALPA, and TACA was, I believe, the smallest airline in that union.
If fading memory serves, at one point the New Orleans operation had two BAC-111s, three Lockheed Electras, and two Boeing
737-200s.
After some political changes at home in El Salvador, the then owners (I'm not sure if the present Kriete family owned it then) moved the airline back to El Salvador, where pilots took huge pay cuts and earned Salvadoran wages, ALPA pilots no more.
Since then, the airline has formed Grupo TACA, and is agressively moving into code shares with US majors, and into new markets .
Guess the pilots are still on the losing end, from the posts here.
This is ironic for me, because one of my fellow pilots at a US regional turboprop airline here in about 1992 said he'd turned down a TACA offer because of low pay(about $US 500/month, as I recall). I advised he take the job and look at it like they were paying him to go to school on the 737-300. That's what some TACA pilots today seem to be doing with the A-320.
I remember some years ago a skillful TACA crew deadsticked a brand new 737 on a flood levee in New Orleans (apparently those Katrina notorious levees were good for something!) after both engines failed in heavy rain. After the plane was examined, they flew it off the levee!
And just think, all that at these prices?
