TAME

Infobox_Airline
airline=TAME Línea Aérea del Ecuador
logo=TAME logo.svg
logo_size=250px
fleet_size=11
destinations=14
IATA=EQ
ICAO=TAE
callsign=TAME
parent=Ecuadorian Air Force
founded=1962
headquarters=Quito, Ecuador
key_people= Cesar Naranjo A. President
hubs=Mariscal Sucre International Airport
frequent_flyer=FrecuenTAME
lounge=
alliance=
website= http://www.tame.com.ec

TAME Línea Aérea del Ecuador is an airline based in Quito, Ecuador. It is the commercial branch of the Ecuadorian Air Force and operates scheduled domestic flights as well as some international routes. The name is an acronym of Transportes Aéreos Militares Ecuatorianos, later changed to Transportes Aéreos Mercantiles Ecuatorianos.

History

TAME was founded by the Ecuadorean military in 1962 with the aim of providing transportation from the urban centers to the remote areas of the country including routes which were important but not profitable for commercial airlines. The fleet evolved from Douglas, Lockheed and Avro props into a fleet of various Boeing and Fokker jets, and recently factory-new Airbus and Embraer planes in an effort to rejuvenate the fleet. [cite web |url=http://www.tame.com.ec/tame/institucion2/historia.asp |title=TAME: Historia |accessdate=2007-12-20 |format= |work= ] TAME has been involved in a number of tragic accidents, incidents and crashes. The current fleet renewal intends to elevate the safety record and lower the average age of the fleet, partly in order to gain permission to operate flights to the USA. TAME does not belong to an international airline alliance, but has in the past code-shared with Air France and Lufthansa on flights from Quito to Bogota, connecting to those airlines' transatlantic operations into Europe.

Destinations

TAME currently serves 13 cities in Ecuador, two cities (Cali), (San Andres) in Colombia, three cities (Rio de Janeiro), (Manaus) and (São Paulo) in Brazil and one city (Punta Cana) in The Dominican Republic. [cite web |url=http://www.tame.com.ec/tame/home/frameItinerarios.asp |title=TAME: Itinerarios |accessdate=2007-12-20 |format= |work= ] All destinations are served from the main hub in Quito (UIO) and the secondary hub in Guayaquil (GYE), except the flight to Cali which stops at Tulcan.

Ecuador-Domestic Destinations:

*Quito Hub
*Guayaquil Hub
**Esmeraldas (SETN/ESM)
**Tulcan (SETU/TUA)
**Lago Agrio (SENL/LGQ)
**Coca (SECO/OCC)
**Manta (SEMT/MEC)
**Portoviejo (SEPV/PVO)
**Macas (SEMC/XMS)
**Cuenca (SECU/CUE)
**Loja (SETM/LOH)
**Baltra (Galapagos) (SEGS/GPS)
**San Cristobal (Galapagos) (SEST/SCY)
**Machala (SEMH/MCH)

International Destinations:

* Colombia
** Cali (SKCL/CLO)
** Cartagena
** San Andres
* Brazil
** Manaus (SBEG/MAO)
* Cuba
** Havana
** Varadero
* Dominican Republic
** Punta Cana
* Panama
** Panama city
* Peru
** Lima (SPIM/LIM) Codeshare with TACA.

Past Destinations: (no longer served)
Bogota (SKBO/BOG), Santiago de Chile (SCEL/SCL)

Fleet

Incidents and accidents

* An Air France flight from Eldorado International Airport of Bogotá, Colombia to Quito, Ecuador, using an aircraft leased from TAME and flown with Ecuadorian crew, crashed on April 20, 1998 into a mountain near Bogotá. All 43 passengers and 10 crew died [http://www.airsafe.com/events/airlines/afa.htm]
* On January 28, 2002, a Boeing 727-100 crashed in the Andes Mountains on the border of Colombia while landing in Tulcán, with no survivors. There was foggy weather at the time of the accident .
* On January 17, 2003, a Fokker F28 overran the runway in Quito after aborting take-off, causing no injuries Fact|date=July 2007.

External links

* [http://www.tame.com.ec/ TAME]
* [http://www.tamevirtual.org/ TAME Virtual]
* [http://www.ch-aviation.ch/aircraft.php?search=set&airline=EQ&al_op=1 TAME Fleet]
* [http://www.laahs.com/artman/publish/article_112.shtml History of TAME's Electras]
* [http://www.laahs.com/artman/publish/article_63.shtml History of TAME's Color Schemes]

References