Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport

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Executive Air dba American Eagle ATR-72 and American Airlines aircraft at Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in April 2001

Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is the island's main international gateway, and its main connection to the United States. Intra-island flights fly between San Juan and various local points of interest, including Ponce and Vieques. Its IATA Airport Code is SJU.

Located in the area known as Isla Verde, the airport was, for many decades, known as Isla Verde International Airport, until 1985, when then Governor Rafael Hernández Colón decided to name it after Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rico's first democratically elected governor.

Luis Muñoz Marín International has three terminals, designated A, B and C. Terminal A (International) is currently under construction.

The airport served as a Caribbean hub for Pan Am, Trans-Caribbean, and Eastern Airlines. It was also the hub of Puerto Rico's international airline, Prinair, from the airline's start in 1966 to 1984, when Prinair went bankrupt. In 1986, American Airlines (along with American Eagle) established a hub in the airport to compete with Eastern Airlines.

In the past, the airport has been served by Mexicana, Aerolineas Argentinas, Lufthansa, Air France, British Airways, Viasa, Dominicana De Aviacion and many other important airlines.

Various celebrities have been welcomed to Puerto Rico at this airport, including Menudo in 1981, after the group came back from touring Mexico; the boxer Felix Trinidad in 1999, after he defeated Oscar De La Hoya, and Pope John Paul II in 1984. Miss Universe 2003, Amelia Vega, held a press conference at the airport after her arrival on October of that year.

On February 15, 1970, a Dominicana De Aviacion DC-9 that was flying to Luis Muñoz Marín crashed shortly after takeoff from Las Americas International Airport in Punta Caucedo, Dominican Republic, near Santo Domingo, killing everyone on board, including Puerto Rico's national women's volleyball team and Dominican Carlos Cruz, a former world boxing champion who was going to San Juan for a rematch with Carlos Ortiz. See: Dominicana DC-9 air disaster

On June 24, 1972, Prinair Flight 191, which took off from Luis Muñoz Marín Airport, crashed while attempting to land at Mercedita Airport in Ponce.

On December 31 of that same year, baseball star Roberto Clemente and his companions died when their DC-3 crashed soon after take-off from Luis Munoz Marín during a relief flight bound for Nicaragua. Neither the bodies of the victims nor the plane's wreckage were ever found.

In 1983, a hijacked Alitalia DC-10 landed at this airport, under orders by the hijacker.

In 1985, an American Airlines DC-10 taking off from Muñoz Marín to JFK International Airport in New York overran the runway and nosedived into a nearby lake. Everybody avoided injury.

Airlines serving Luis Muñoz Marín International:

• Air ALM
• Air Atlanta Icelandic
• Air Culebra
• Air Santo Domingo
• Air St Thomas
• Air Sunshine
• American Airlines
• ATA
• Britannia
• Copa
• Cape Air dba Continental Connection
• Caribbean Sun
• Condor Airlines
• Continental Airlines
• Delta Airlines
• Executive Air dba American Eagle
• Iberia Airlines
• Isla Nena
• jetBlue Airways
• LIAT
• Northwest Airlines
• Pan Am
• San Juan Aviation
• Spirit Airlines
• US Airways
• United Airlines
• Vieques Air Link
• Virgin Atlantic Airways (starting May 20, 2004)

Copyright note

Photo copyrighted by, and courtesy of, Mr. Joe Pries and his website, auctiontransportation.com