Nicaragua to open international airport in Ometepe Island

Jun. 20, 2011 - Nicaragua’s International Airports Administration Company (EAAI, for its acronym in Spanish) recently announced plans to invest up to US$7 million in the construction of an international airport in Ometepe Island in order to foster the development of the local tourism industry.

The airport terminal, expected to initiate operations in early 2012, will have a 1,500mts long and 23mts wide runway, a control tower, central offices and a fire station. According to authorities, Costa Rican-based airline Liberia has already expressed its interest in scheduling daily flights to Ometepe Island.

Orlando Castillo, General Manager of EAAI, declared that “the decision to build an airport in Ometepe was taken due to the island’s great potential for tourism development.”

In addition, the Government of Nicaragua is also planning to open two other international airports in the country, which include a terminal in Greytown, in the Department of Río San Juan, and another one in Punta Huete, in the Department of Managua.

Currently, Nicaragua has only one international airport, the August César Sandino terminal in Managua, which was recognized as one of the safest in Latin America by the Organization of International Civil Aviation (OACI, for its acronym in Spanish).

In June 2010, Ometepe Island was declared Nicaragua’s third Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Program on Man and the Biosphere. The country’s other two Biosphere Reserves are the Bosawas and the San Juan River.

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