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Augusto C. Sandino International Airport () or ACS is the main airport in Managua, Nicaragua. Named as ''Las Mercedes Airport'' in 1968 it was later renamed Augusto C. Sandino International Airport during the Sandinista regime in the 1980s and again in 2001 to ''Managua International Airport'' by then president Arnoldo Alemán. Its name was changed once more in February 2007 to its current name by President Daniel Ortega to honor one of Nicaragua's national heroes, Augusto Cesar Sandino. The runway at the airport is 8,012 ft long, and it is located at an elevation of 194 feet. With 1.4 million passengers in 2013, ACS is currently the fifth busiest airport by passenger traffic in Central America and it also serves as a focus city for the Panamanian airline Copa Airlines. Augusto C. Sandino International Airport has direct scheduled service to destinations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America and South America. ==History== Before ACS, there was the old Xolotlan Airport, about 2 miles east of Managua, built in 1915 which very soon became too small for Managua's airline service growth. Thus, on January 22, 1942, the Nicaraguan Government and Pan American Airways signed a contract to construct an airport by Las Mercedes Country Estate which inspired the name for Las Mercedes Airport.〔 〕 Las Mercedes was further upgraded, re-designed to handle Boeing 707 aircraft, and re-inaugurated on July 4, 1968 by Anastasio Somoza Debayle. In the early 1970s, Las Mercedes was expanded to more modern standards, such as four health inspectors, eight immigration officers and ten customs inspectors. It was considered fully equipped, having air conditioning, background music, loudspeakers and conveyor belts for baggage handling. It also had a restaurant on its upper floor where visitors and travelers could see airport movement. The expanded airport could serve three aircraft at once and by 1975 LANICA, the National Airline of Nicaragua, as well as many well known carriers Pan Am, KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines), Taca Airlines, Sahsa, Avianca, Iberia, SAM, TAN, Varig, and smaller local carriers, flew into Las Mercedes. When the Sandinistas took power, the airport was named after Augusto César Sandino, a Nicaraguan revolutionary and guerrilla leader, after whom the Sandinista movement is named. The Sandinistas however did not maintain the airport, and it began to deteriorate until it was expanded and remodeled in 1996, when, among other things, two new boarding bridges were installed.〔 The airport was renamed "Managua International Airport" in 2001 by then President Arnoldo Alemán and renamed again in 2007 to its current name by President Daniel Ortega In mid 2007, President Daniel Ortega renamed the airport in honor of Sandino. Nicaraguan artist Róger Pérez de la Rocha has created many two large portraits of Augusto César Sandino, and Rubén Darío which they lay at the airports lobby.〔("Cultural" ), ''El Nuevo Diario'', 19 February 2000〕 . Las Mercedes served for a very long time as a hub for Nicaragua's flag carriers Lanica (until 1978), Aeronica from 1979 to the 80's and NICA afterwards. When NICA became a member of Grupo TACA during the 1990s, the number of important connections to the rest of Latin America from which ACS grew considerably. According to EAAI (Empresa Administradora de Aeropuertos Internacionales) ACS is the most modern airport in Central America and the 4th safest in the world. It is located just from Managua's downtown, has a runway which measures in length and is at an elevation of . Embraer 190s, Airbus A300, Airbus A310, Airbus A320, Airbus A330, Airbus 340 Boeing 737s, Boeing 747s, Boeing 757s, Boeing 767s, Lockheed L-1011 TriStars and McDonnell Douglas DC-10s can land at the airport. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Augusto C. Sandino International Airport」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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