SAHSA

SAHSA, "Servicio Aereo de Honduras SA" airline codes|SH|SHA|Sierra Hotel SA, was the national airline of Honduras.

History

SAHSA was founded in 1944 with help from Pan American Airways under the name "Servicio Aereo de Honduras SA" (SAHSA). Operations began using a Douglas DC-3 to points within Honduras. In 1953 SAHSA acquired rival TACA de Honduras. During the years SAHSA operated the Douglas DC-3, Convair CV-440, Convair CV-580, Curtis C-46 Commando, and Lockheed L-188 Electra. [Airlines Remembered by BI Hengi, Publisher Midland Publishing]

In 1970 Pan Am gave up its stake in SAHSA and TAN (("Transportes Aéreos Nacionales") took over but SAHSA continued to operate independently. However, it merged into TAN in the 1980s. It was based at Toncontín International Airport in Tegucigalpa and flew from Honduras and Belize City to various destinations throughout central and north America. Routes included Houston, New Orleans and Miami to Belize, San Pedro Sula, La Ceiba, Tegucigalpa, San Salvador and Roatán.

On October 21, 1989 an accident with a rented Boeing 727 a few kilometers from Tegucigalpa caused many deaths and the company never recovered financially. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE2D71E3DF931A15753C1A96F948260 Plane Crashes in Honduras, Killing at Least 131 - New York Times ] ] After the merger of SAHSA and TAN the company was known as TAN-SAHSA, but many jokes called it: SA-TAN. Also, Sahsa was jokingly known as "Stay At Home Stay Alive". [ [http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/archive/index.php?t-31464.html Some light hearted fun..Acronyms for International Airlines [Archive - Key Publishing Ltd Aviation Forums ] ]

Because the owner of TAN-SAHSA was a long term dictator in Honduras (Oswaldo López Arellano), no U.S. airlines could fly to or from Honduras. Once the dictator was thrown out of power, some U.S. based airlines started flying to and from Honduras, but all those companies (Eastern Airlines, PanAm, Air Florida) went into bankruptcy before the end of TAN-SAHSA.

There are still many suits from former employees pending of judicial resolution of the courts.

Historical fleet

*Convair CV-440
*Convair CV-580
*Curtis C-46 Commando
*Lockheed L-188 Electra
*Douglas DC-3
*Douglas DC-6
*Boeing 727-081 (up to 2 operated at one time)
*Boeing 737-200 (up to 10 operated at one time)
*Boeing 737-400 (up to 2 operated at one time)

External links

* [http://rzjets.net/operators/operator.php?opid=1149/ Code and fleet data]
* [http://aviation-safety.net/database/operator/airline.php?var=5436/ Accident and incidents report]
* [http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?airlinesearch=SAHSA&distinct_entry=true/ Airliners.net picture]
* [http://sanpedrosula-airport.tripod.com/misshonduras.html/ Short history and pictures]

References