Managua International Airport

A plane arriving from the US at Managua’s Sandino International Airport might as well be filled with rock stars, given the crowd waiting outside. A true throng of people press against the glass looking into the area where departing passengers pick up bags and check through customs. Everyone is dressed up; plenty of women, made up and bejeweled, look like they just stepped out of a novela.

That’s not that unusual at Latin American airports. The people getting off the plane include sons and daughters and mothers and fathers not seen for years, friends loaded with designer jeans, children seeking refuge from their now-tiresome American dream.

You almost feel bad shoving through them with your little luggage cart just so you can get started on vacation.

Managua Airport Information

For more practical information, here’s this from the airport’s website:

Located 11 kilometers east of downtown Managua, the Augusto C. Sandino International Airport is liked to the capital city by Carretera Norte, a six-lane highway. It is Nicaragua’s main international airport, servicing an average of 100 daily flights to the United States, Central America, Mexico and Panama, with connections and domestic flights to Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast. The airlines operating out of this airport are: Grupo Taca, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, Copa Airlines, Aerocaribbean, Atlantic Airlines, La Costeña, as well as the cargo airlines: Arrow Air, UPS, Copa Cargo and Taca Cargo.

Managua Airport website