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Founded | December 17, 1962 | ||||||
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Ceased operations | May 19, 2020 | ||||||
Hubs | Mariscal Sucre International Airport | ||||||
Focus cities | José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport | ||||||
Frequent-flyer program | TAME Millas | ||||||
Subsidiaries |
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Fleet size | 5 | ||||||
Destinations | 16 | ||||||
Parent company | Ecuadorian Government | ||||||
Headquarters | Quito, Ecuador | ||||||
Key people | Fernando Guerrero (CEO) | ||||||
Website | www |
TAME or TAME EP Linea Aerea del Ecuador was an airline founded in Ecuador in 1962. TAME (pronounced "tah-meh") was the flag carrier and the largest airline of Ecuador. TAME headquarters were in Quito, Pichincha Province and the main hub was Mariscal Sucre International Airport in Quito. The airline was formed by the Air Force of Ecuador. In 2011, it became a commercial entity and provided domestic, international and charter flights. On May 20, 2020, the Ecuador government decided to cease all the operations and liquidate the airline. [1]
The military airline was founded on December 17, 1962, by Luis A. Ortega under Guillermo Freile Posso, both colonels. It was named Transportes Aéreos Militares Ecuatorianos (TAME). At the time, the Air Force required an income source; governmental transport services to remote and difficult to reach parts of Ecuador; and an entity to train pilots. The airline gradually increased in size infrastructure and number of services.
On December 4, 1962, Luis A. Ortega, Hector Granja, Eduardo Sandoval, Alfredo Barreiro, Oswaldo Lara, Julio Espinosa, Teodoro Malo and Jose Montesinos made inaugural flights in the Douglas C-47. The pilots held the rank of major and noncommissioned officers worked as flight attendants. The first commercial flight was made by Teodoro Malo on a route from Quito, Esmeraldas, Bahía, Manta, Guayaquil, Cuenca and back to Quito. Initially, TAME made domestic flights using C-47 planes. Gradually, over the next two years, DC-3 and DC-6 planes were added and then in 1970, two HS-748 Avro were acquired.
On April 30, 1966, TAME began regular international flights to Havana, Panama and Santiago de Chile.
As its business grew, TAME purchased four Lockheed L-188 Electras from Ecuatoriana de Aviación. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, TAME added three Boeing 727-100s. During the mid-1980s and up until 1992, Tame purchased four Boeing 727-200s. In 1986, three Fokker F28 Fellowship 4000s were added. In December 1998, TAME rented a Boeing 757-200.
In December 1992, the governments of Ecuador and Colombia signed the "Frontier Integration Agreement" establishing a Quito, Esmeraldas (Tachina), Cali, Esmeraldas (Tachina), Quito route. In 1995, TAME offered flights from Quito to Bogotá for Air France passengers.
In 2000, TAME began a long process of fleet renewal beginning with the renting of two Airbus A320s. These planes were delivered at the European Corporation Assemble factory, Toulouse and were renewed in 2008. Also in 2000, the Boeing 727s were retired. TAME found the Embraer 170/190s suited the airline's needs. Over the next two years, two models of the 170 series and one of the 190 series were obtained. On August 25, 2008, one Airbus A319 was obtained and soon after the two Airbus A320s were replaced, completing the fleet renewal.
In 2011, Tame changed its legal status to a state owned company, no longer under the administration of the Ecuadorian Air Force.
In 2013, TAME incorporated its first and only Airbus A330-200, formerly of Dubai’s Emirates, to cover flights to New York City. In addition, 3 Quest Kodiaks were incorporated for its subsidiary TAME Amazonía for the routes in the country's Amazon.
On May 19, 2020, Ecuador government decided to liquidate the airline and ceased all operations. The airline, which had been struggling for several years, claimed that its difficulties were compounded by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
TAME's colours were blue, light blue, and gold as a decorative element. The original logo, designed by Luis A. Ortega symbolized the flight of a bird with a sun in the background. In 2009, the airline was rebranded with a new logo and colour palette. [2]
TAME's hub was in Quito at Mariscal Sucre International Airport. TAME flew internationally to Cali in Colombia and Fort Lauderdale, New York in the United States. The main destinations in Ecuador were Guayaquil, Cuenca, Manta and Esmeraldas.
In 1997, TAME extended its international schedule through an agreement with EVA Air of Taiwan. On December 1, 2010, a codeshare agreement was made with Copa Airlines. [3] [4]
As of March 2020, the TAME fleet comprised the following aircraft: [5] [6] [7]
Aircraft | In service | Orders | Passengers | Notes | ||
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J | Y | Total | ||||
Airbus A319-100 | 1 | — | 10 | 135 | 145 | |
Airbus A320-200 | 1 | — | 12 | 150 | 162 | |
ATR 42-500 | 3 | — | – | 50 | 50 | |
Total | 5 | — |
Since its foundation, the airline's fleet has grown with the following aircraft: [8] [7]
Aircraft | Total | Introduced | Retired | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Airbus A330-200 | 1 | 2013 | 2019 | Former Emirates aircraft |
Beechcraft 200 | 1 | 1980 | 1980 | |
Boeing 727-100 | 3 | 1984 | 2006 | One crashed as Flight 120 |
Boeing 727-200 | 6 | 1990 | 2008 | One crashed as Flight 422 |
Boeing 737-200 | 1 | 1981 | 1983 | Written off |
Boeing 757-200 | 1 | 1999 | 1999 | Leased from TAESA |
de Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo | 2 | 1976 | 1990 | |
de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter | 6 | 1975 | 2011 | |
Douglas C-47 Skytrain | 11 | 1968 | 1982 | |
Douglas DC-3 | 1 | 1969 | Unknown | |
Douglas DC-6B | 4 | 1963 | 1974 | |
Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia | 2 | 2007 | 2016 | Leased from SAEREO Operated by TAME Xpress |
Embraer 170LR | 2 | 2006 | 2015 | |
Embraer 190AR | 5 | 2006 | 2019 | |
Fokker F-28 Mk 4000 | 3 | 1985 | 2009 | |
Hawker Siddeley HS 748 | 5 | 1970 | 2009 | |
Lockheed L-188 Electra | 6 | 1974 | 1989 | Two used for spare parts |
Quest Kodiak 100 | 3 | 2013 | 2020 | Leased from Air Amazonia Operated by TAME Amazonía |
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1983.
José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport is an international airport serving Guayaquil, the capital of the Guayas Province and the second most populous city in Ecuador. It is the second busiest airport in Ecuador.
Empresa Ecuatoriana de Aviación, more commonly known as simply Ecuatoriana, was the national airline of Ecuador. The carrier had an operational hiatus between September 1993 and August 1995, resuming operations on 23 June 1996, after VASP became the controlling shareholder. The airline folded permanently in 2006.
Icaro Air was an airline based in Quito, Ecuador. Its main base was Mariscal Sucre International Airport, Quito.
SAEREO was a regional airline based in Quito, Ecuador. It operates charter and domestic passenger services, as well as medivac flights.
Mariscal Sucre International Airport was the main international airport serving Quito, Pichincha Province, Ecuador. It was the busiest airport in Ecuador by passenger traffic, by aircraft movement and by cargo movement, and one of the busiest airports in South America. It was named after Venezuelan-born Antonio José de Sucre, a hero of Ecuadorian and Latin American independence. It began operations in 1960, and during its last years of operation, handled about 6.2 million passengers and 164,000 metric tons of freight per year. The airport, one of the highest in the world was located in the northern part of the city, in the Chaupicruz parish, within five minutes of Quito's financial center; the terminals were located at the intersection of Amazonas and La Prensa avenues. Mariscal Sucre International was the largest hub for TAME with an average of 50 daily departures.
SAETA Air Ecuador was a privately held airline of Ecuador, which was founded in 1966. During its heyday in the 1990s, it flew to numerous destinations in North and South America from its base in Guayaquil.
Iberia Líneas Aéreas de España, S.A., usually shortened to Iberia, is the largest airline of Spain, based in Madrid.
Mariscal Lamar International Airport is a high elevation airport serving Cuenca, the capital of the Azuay Province in Ecuador. It is named after the Peruvian military leader and politician José de la Mar, a native of Cuenca.
Air France Flight 422 was a scheduled flight on 20 April 1998 by Air France from Bogotá, Colombia, to Quito, Ecuador, covering the final leg of a flight from Paris to Quito. The Boeing 727 was destroyed, killing all 53 people on board, when it crashed into the Eastern Hills of Bogotá because of foggy weather and low visibility after taking off from Bogotá's El Dorado International Airport. The plane was owned by TAME, the Ecuadorian airline, but was being operated on a wet-lease basis to Air France as the final leg of its flight from Paris.
SAN was an airline which was based in Guayaquil, Ecuador that was the domestic branch of the airline SAETA. It was founded in 1964, and ceased operations in 1999.
TAME Flight 120 was a Boeing 727-134 airliner, registration HC-BLF, named El Oro, operating as a scheduled international passenger flight between Quito, Ecuador and Cali, Colombia, with a scheduled stopover at the Ecuadorian border town of Tulcán. The aircraft crashed while on approach to Tulcán's Teniente Coronel Luis A. Mantilla International Airport on January 28, 2002. The pilot flew the approach incorrectly in reportedly foggy conditions, and the aircraft crashed into the side of the Cumbal Volcano, located near Ipiales, Colombia, at 10:23 in the morning. All passengers and crew were killed in the crash.
The 1983 TAME Boeing 737 crash is the deadliest aviation accident in Ecuador. A Boeing 737-2V2 Advanced, operated by Ecuador's national airline, flying on a domestic route from the now-closed Mariscal Sucre International Airport in Quito to Mariscal Lamar Airport in Cuenca, crashed into a hill during final approach just 1 mile from its final destination, killing all 119 people on board.
Avianca Ecuador S.A. is an airline based in Quito, Ecuador. It operates passenger and cargo flights within Ecuador, between the mainland and the Galápagos Islands, and between Ecuador and Colombia. It is one of the seven nationally branded airlines in the Avianca Group of Latin American airlines.
Aeroservicios Ecuatorianos Flight 767-103 was a scheduled freight flight from Miami in the United States to Guayaquil, Ecuador with an intermediate stop in the Ecuadorian capital Quito. On 18 September 1984 the flight was being operated by a Douglas DC-8-55F jet. It failed to get airborne during the takeoff run at Quito Airport, hit an Instrument Landing System (ILS) antenna at the end of the runway and then struck several houses. All four crew and 49 people on the ground were killed.
Austro Aéreo S.A. was an Ecuadorian airline that operated scheduled passenger services throughout Ecuador.
On 23 April 1979, SAETA Flight 011, a Vickers Viscount passenger aircraft of Ecuadorian airline SAETA, crashed in a mountainous region of Pastaza Province, Ecuador, killing all 57 people on board. The wreckage of the aircraft was not found until five years later.
Media related to TAME at Wikimedia Commons