Gourt Home::Gourt :: Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport
Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport is a public airport located in Carolina, 3 miles (5 km) southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
It is the island's main international gateway, and its main connection to the mainland United States. Intra-island flights fly between Carolina and various local points of interest, including Aguadilla, Culebra, Mayagüez, Ponce and Vieques. The airport offers rapid access to San Juan, the capital of the island.
The airport serves as the Caribbean hub for American Airlines and American Eagle.
History
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.
The airport served as a Caribbean hub for Pan Am, Trans-Caribbean, Eastern Air Lines, and a short lived "focus city" for TWA. 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 Air Lines. In the past, the airport has been served by Mexicana, Lufthansa, Air France, British Airways, Air Jamaica, Viasa, Aerolineas Argentinas, Virgin Atlantic, 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 Félix Trinidad in 1999, after he defeated Oscar De La Hoya, King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia of Spain in 1985, and Pope John Paul II in 1984. Miss Universe 1993, Dayanara Torres , held a press conference at the airport after her arrival on May of that year.
Disasters
- On February 15, 1970, a Dominicana de Aviacion DC-9 that was flying to Isla Verde 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 Isla Verde 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 takeoff from Isla Verde during a relief flight bound for Nicaragua. Neither the bodies of the victims nor the plane's wreckage were ever found.
- 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.
- On May 9, 2004 an American Eagle Super ATR, flight 5401, crash-landed when of the tires popped. Seventeen people were injured, but no one died.
Terminals and airlines
The Luis Muñoz Marín Airport has three terminals: Terminal A, the Main Terminal and the American Airlines Terminal. Terminal A is currently in construction. Previously, the airport had a different layout which called the different concourses as Terminals B, C and D, but the new signing around the airport has changed this.
The Main Terminal houses Concourse B and Concourse C while the American Airlines Terminal houses Concourse D and Concourse E. All airlines except American Airlines and American Eagle check in the Main Terminal. American Airlines and American Eagle check in the American Airlines Terminal.
Terminal A
Under construction...Main Terminal
Concourse B (former Terminal B)
- Air Canada Gate 34 (Montréal, Toronto)
- Cape Air Gate 31A (Mayagüez, Ponce, St. Croix, St. Thomas, Tortola, Vieques)
- Caribbean Sun Gate 31B (Antigua, St. Croix, St. Kitts, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, St. Vincent, Tortola, Santo Domingo, Santiago)
- Delta Air Lines Gates 35, 39 - 41 (Atlanta, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, New York-JFK, Orlando)
- LIAT (St. Maarten)
- Northwest Airlines Gates 32 - 33 (Detroit, Memphis)
- United Airlines
- Ted operated by United Airlines -- Gate 34 (Chicago-O'Hare, Washington-Dulles)
- US Airways Gates 36 - 38 (Boston, Charlotte, New York-LaGuardia, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington-Dulles)
- Spirit Airlines Gates 23, 25 (Fort Lauderdale, Orlando)
- Air Culebra
- Air Santo Domingo
- Air Sunshine
- Isla Nena Air Service
- San Juan Aviation
- Vieques Air Link
Concourse C (former Terminal C)
- Continental Airlines Gates 28 - 29 (Houston-Intercontinental, Newark)
- Copa Airlines Gate 20 (Panama City)
- Iberia Airlines Gate 27 (Madrid)
- JetBlue Airways Gate 23 (Newark, New York-JFK, Orlando)
American Airlines Terminal (former Terminal D)
Concourse D
- American Airlines -- Gates 11 - 12, 14 - 19 (Antigua, Aruba, Baltimore/Washington, Boston, Caracas, Chicago-O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Fort Lauderdale, Hartford, Los Angeles, Miami, New York-JFK, Newark, Orlando, Philadelphia, Santo Domingo, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Tampa, Washington-Dulles)
Concourse E
- American Airlines -- Gates 3 - 9 (see above)
- American Eagle -- Gates 1A - 1F, 2 (Anguilla, Antigua, Aruba, Beef Island, Bonaire, Bridgetown, Curacao, Dominica, Fort-de-France, Grenada, La Romana, Nevis, Pointe-a-Pitre, Port of Spain, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, Santiago, Santo Domingo, St. Croix, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Thomas)
Unknown
External links
"Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport"