SBA Airlines

SBA Airlines
IATA ICAO Callsign
S3 BBR SANTA BARBARA
Founded 1 November 1995
Hubs Simón Bolívar International Airport
Focus cities La Chinita International Airport
Frequent-flyer program Privilege
Fleet size 11
Destinations 4
Company slogan Con calidez venezolana
(with Venezuelan warmth)
Parent company SBA Airlines, C.A.
Headquarters Caracas, Distrito Capital, Venezuela
Key people Francisco González, President
Website sbairlines.com

Santa Bárbara Airlines C.A, doing business as SBA Airlines and formerly as Santa Bárbara Airlines prior to 2008,[1] is an airline with its headquarters on the third floor of the Edificio Tokay in Caracas, Venezuela.[2] It operates scheduled domestic and international services. Its main base is Simón Bolívar International Airport (CCS), Maiquetía (Caracas), with a hub at La Chinita International Airport (MAR), Maracaibo.

History

Former Santa Bárbara Airlines Boeing 767 at Madrid Barajas airport

The airline was established on 1 November 1995 and started operations on 1 March 1996. It wholly owned Islas Airways until September 2006, when it was sold to the Canary Islands group Grupo SOAC. The airline had their first Boeing 767-300 in the new livery, a former SmartLynx Airlines airplane delivered to begin flights to Madrid on 20 June 2009.

At first it only covered airline flights to Cabimas, Mérida, El Vigía and Santa Bárbara del Zulia. The route to Alberto Carnevalli Airport in Mérida was diverted to El Vigía-Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo International Airport after the crash of Flight 518. Later, the airline took new destinations which covered the routes to Barquisimeto, Caracas, Cumaná, Las Piedras (Punto Fijo), San Antonio del Táchira and Valencia with a single overseas flight that covered the route Caracas - Oranjestad (Aruba).

Later, the airline opened international routes from Caracas to Barranquilla, Quito, Lima, Madrid, Miami, Santiago de Compostela, Tenerife and Willemstad.

SBA Airlines Boeing 767-300 at Caracas airport

Frequent flyer program

Privilege is the frequent-flyer program for SBA Airlines.

Proposed merger

SBA & Aserca Airlines have a proposed merger in place.

Destinations

SBA serve the following as of September 2014:

SBA previously also served New York and Lima in the region, and Funchal, Madrid and Tenerife in Europe.

Fleet

The SBA Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft with an average age of 22.9 years.[3][4]

SBA Airlines Fleet
Aircraft Total Orders Options Passengers Notes
Boeing 757-200 3 0 0 172
Boeing 767-300ER 3 0 0 242
McDonnell Douglas MD-83 2 0 0 152 stored at CCS

Accidents and incidents

On 21 February 2008 an ATR 42 propeller aircraft operating Flight 518 from Mérida to Caracas, went missing shortly after taking off. Forty-three passengers and a crew of three, including two pilots and one flight attendant, were reportedly on board at the time of the accident. The remains of the aircraft were found the following day in a mountain range approximately 10 kilometers north-east of Mérida at an altitude of 12,000 feet (4,000 m). No survivors were found.

After the incident, the company started a new public relations program as well as a new marketing initiative switching the airline's name to SBA Airlines.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "English page." SBA Airlines
  2. ↑ "Oficinas." SBA Airlines. Retrieved on January 17, 2012. "Calle 3B, Edificio Tokay, Piso 3, La Urbina."
  3. ↑ SBA Airlines Fleet
  4. ↑ SBA Airlines fleet list at planespotters.net

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Santa Barbara Airlines.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, March 06, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.