Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport

Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport Aeropuerto Internacional Luis Muñoz Marín
IATA: SJU ICAO: TJSJ FAA LID: SJU
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Puerto Rico Ports Authority
Operator	Aerostar Airport Holdings
Serves	San Juan, Puerto Rico
Location	Carolina, Puerto Rico
Hub for	Passenger Air Sunshine Cape Air M&N Aviation Seaborne Airlines Tradewind Aviation Cargo Ameriflight Mountain Air Cargo
Focus city for	JetBlue Airways
Elevation AMSL	9 ft / 3 m
Coordinates	18°26′21″N 066°00′07″W / 18.43917°N 66.00194°W / 18.43917; -66.00194Coordinates: 18°26′21″N 066°00′07″W / 18.43917°N 66.00194°W / 18.43917; -66.00194
Website	www.aeropuertosju.com
Map
TJSJ Location in Puerto Rico
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 8/26 10,400 3,170 Asphalt 10/28 8,016 2,443 Concrete
Statistics (2012)
Aircraft operations 156,679 Passenger movement 8,448,172 Based aircraft 88
Source: Federal Aviation Administration Operations from the FAA passengers from the Puerto Rico Ports Authority

Passenger

Cargo

The Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (IATA: SJU, ICAO: TJSJ, FAA LID: SJU) (Spanish: Aeropuerto Internacional Luis Muñoz Marín, unofficially known as Isla Verde International Airport/Aeropuerto Internacional de Isla Verde) is a joint civil-military international airport named for Puerto Rico's first democratically elected governor and located in suburban Carolina, Puerto Rico, three miles (five kilometres) southeast of San Juan. It is the busiest airport in the Caribbean region by passenger traffic. Over 4 million passengers board a plane at the airport per year according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The airport is owned by the Puerto Rico Ports Authority and managed by Aerostar Airport Holdings, a public-private partnership which was awarded a lease by the government of Puerto Rico to operate and manage the airport for 40 years beginning in 2013. SJU is the second international airport to be privatized in the United States and its territories, and, as of 2013, is the only currently privatized airport in the nation. Taxis and rental cars can transport travelers to and from the airport. The airport serves as a gateway to the Caribbean islands.

In 1945, aware of the importance of aviation for the development of the economy of Puerto Rico, the island government had pointed out the need to build an international airport capable of handling the growing air traffic of San Juan International Airport, in Isla Grande, that had been operating since 1929; as well as responding to the needs of the future. Until then Isla Grande had been the main airport of Puerto Rico. As airlines began switching from propeller aircraft to jets, the 4,000-foot Isla Grande airstrip did not have the necessary distance for modern aircraft to land and take off. (The Isla Grande Airport, now named in honor of Maj. Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci, Pilot of the US Air Force F-111, who was killed-in-action in Libya in 1986, currently has a runway of 5,542 feet in length.)