SBA Airlines
Santa Bárbara Airlines C.A, doing business as SBA Airlines and formerly as Santa Bárbara Airlines prior to 2008, is an airline with its headquarters on the third floor of the Edificio Tokay in Caracas, Venezuela. 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
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).
