SAHSA & TAN: Honduran Partners to the End

Servicio Aéreo de Honduras SA was the national airline of Honduras for nearly fifty years. It was founded in November 1944 with the assistance of Pan American who had a 38% share in the carrier. Flight operations began on October 22, 1945 using a Douglas DC-2 on domestic flights. Soon afterwards a DC-3 and Beech 18 joined the fleet. Along with its at first competitor and later sister TAN the airline would provide a dash of bright blue throughout Central America.

The airline began to expand in the 1950s with the acquisition of TACA de Honduras in 1953 followed by the regional operator ANSHA in 1957. The primary equipment remained DC-3s and civilianised C-47s and the airline would continue to operate the type into the 1990s! It wasn't until the 1960s that more modern equipment began to arrive though even this was only in the form of a pair of DC-6s and HR-SAP - a single ex-Swissair CV-440 bought in 1966. Worse one of the DC-6s (HR-SAG) was written off less than a month after its purchase when it overran the runway at Tegucigalpa!

In 1970 Pan Am sold its share of the airline to another Honduran airline, Transportes Aereas Nacionales (TAN), which had operated in competition with SAHSA since 1945. The airlines began to co-operate but kept their separate identities and over 60% of SAHSA was still held by the Honduran government and private interests. Further fleet modernisation occured in late 1970 when a single Lockheed L-188 Electra (HR-SAW) joined the fleet. A pair of CV-580s also joined in May 1971.

The jet age didn't come to Honduras until TAN purchased a single ex-Pluna Boeing 737-200 (HR-TNR) in May 1974. SAHSA quickly followed TAN however when it also added what for many years would be its only jet aircraft - another 737-200, registered as HR-SHA. She arrived direct from Boeing in October 1974. SAHSA's turboprop fleet was whittled down by 1982 with the sale of both CV-580s and the crash of the Electra (on January 8, 1981).

The two airlines route networks covered a range of domestic services (still using DC-3s) as well as international routes to Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama and of course the flagship routes to New Orleans and Miami in the USA. Fleet growth throughout the 1970s was minimal however the single 737 was joined by a pair of ex-All Nippon and Hapag Lloyd 727-100s in 1981. One of the 727s was returned to Hapag Lloyd in 1984 and the two remaining jets formed the core of the fleet throughout the 1980s. In 1987 a second 737-200 arrived.

By mid-1990 the 737s were wearing a joint TAN SAHSA livery and TAN was gradually merged into SAHSA with the latter's name emerging as the survivor. This was probably at least partly due to a major crash suffered by TAN whe its flagship 727-200 crashed in October 1989 on approach to Tegucigalpa's Toncontin Airport killing 131 occupants.

Several more joined the fleet from 1990 allowing the retirement of the 727. The highpoint of the airline's re-equipment was the lease of a pair of new 737-400s from Guiness Peat Aviation in August 1990, however the finances were obviously not in great shape as both were returned to the lessor by April 1991. In 1991 the government sold its 40% shareholding to the TACA group and by late 1992 the SAHSA fleet stood at 5 737-200s and a single DC-3.

It appears a mixture of corruption and a poor safety record were the airline's major issues. In fact the airline had picked up the unflattering moniker that SAHSA stood for "Stay At Home Stay Alive"! Its first 737 HR-SHA was written off in a landing accident at San Jose-Juan Santamaria airport in November 1991. All services were suddenly terminated on January 15, 1994 and the majority taken over by its co-owner the TACA group.

References

Timetables courtesy of the excellent http://www.timetableimages.com
Hengi, B I. Airlines Remembered
Magnusson, Michael. Latin Glory: Airlines of Latin america
Shaw, Robbie. Boeing 737 Airline Markings 7
Smith, P. R. Boeing 737 Air Portfolios 1