Aerolíneas Nicaragüenses S.A., operating as Aeronica, was an airline based in

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

. Headquartered in the capital

Managua Managua () is the capital city, capital and largest city of Nicaragua, and one of the List of largest cities in Central America, largest cities in Central America. Located on the shores of Lake Managua, the city had an estimated population of 1, ...

, it operated scheduled passenger flights within Central America, as well as to Mexico City and the United States from its hub at the city's

Augusto C. Sandino International Airport Augusto C. Sandino International Airport () , or ACS, is the main joint civil-military public international airport in Managua, Nicaragua. It is named after Nicaraguan revolutionary Augusto Nicolás Sandino (1895–1934) and is located in the ...

History

Aeronica was founded in 1981, as a consequence of the demise of

LANICA Líneas Aéreas de Nicaragua, operating as LANICA, was an airline from Nicaragua. Headquartered in the capital Managua, it operated scheduled passenger flights within South and Central America, as well as to the United States. History Th ...

in earlier that year. Between 1985 and 1990, when the

United States embargo against Nicaragua The United States embargo against Nicaragua was declared by then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan on May 1, 1985, and prohibited all trade between the U.S. and Nicaragua. In a strategy similar to the embargo against Cuba, it was intended to undermi ...

was in effect, the airline was banned from serving the important United States market. Further,

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

-built Tupolev TU-154M were introduced into the Aeronica fleet as spare parts for US-made aircraft such as the

Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an early American long-range Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, the initial first flew on Decembe ...

Boeing 720B The Boeing 720 is a retired American narrow-body airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Announced in July 1957 as a 707 derivative for shorter flights from shorter runways, the 720 first flew on November 23, 1959. Its type certificate ...

, and

Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavier Boeing 707, 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter ...

could not be acquired. In the early 1990s, Aeronica came under economic, laboral, and political pressure. Many of the airline's workers organized a strike in February 1992, over the privatization of their national airline. On February 28, 1992, TACA acquired a 49 percent stake in the company, resulting in the loss of many jobs in Nicaragua. In the same year, the airline license of Aeronica was revoked and in 1993 the airline shut down. Existing Aeronica airport infrastructure was then repurposed by

Grupo TACA Transportes Aéreos del Continente Americano, S.A. (Spanish for "Air Transport of the American Continent"), known and formerly branded as TACA International Airlines), and operating as Avianca El Salvador, is an airline owned by Kingsland Hold ...

for use in their associated animal-transportation firm. In 1994,

reestablished the airline as NICA Airlines, with new colors and fleet. Ten years afterwards, TACA shut down the airline, due to marketing strategies in order to consolidate under the TACA Airlines branding in the region.

Destinations

During the 1980s, Aeronica offered scheduled international passenger flights to the following destinations: ;Costa Rica * San José -

Juan Santamaría International Airport Juan Santamaría International Airport () is the primary airport serving San José, the capital of Costa Rica. The airport is located in Alajuela Province, northwest of downtown San José. It is named after Costa Rica's national hero, Juan ...

;El Salvador *

San Salvador San Salvador () is the Capital city, capital and the largest city of El Salvador and its San Salvador Department, eponymous department. It is the country's largest agglomeration, serving as the country's political, cultural, educational and fin ...

- Cuscatlan International Airport ;Guatemala *

Guatemala City Guatemala City (, also known colloquially by the nickname Guate), is the Capital city, national capital and largest city of the Guatemala, Republic of Guatemala. It is also the Municipalities of Guatemala, municipal capital of the Guatemala Depa ...

La Aurora International Airport La Aurora International Airport (, ) serves Guatemala City, Guatemala. It is located south of Guatemala City's center and from Antigua Guatemala. It is administered by the General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics (Guatemala), General Directora ...

;Mexico *

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

Mexico City International Airport Mexico City International Airport (); officially ''Aeropuerto Internacional Benito Juárez'' (Benito Juárez International Airport) is the primary international airport serving Greater Mexico City. It is the List of the busiest airports in Me ...

;Nicaragua *

(hub) ;Panama *

Panama City Panama City, also known as Panama, is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has a total population of 1,086,990, with over 2,100,000 in its metropolitan area. The city is located at the Pacific Ocean, Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, i ...

Tocumen International Airport Tocumen International Airport () is the primary international airport serving Panama City, the capital of Panama. The airport serves as the homebase for Copa Airlines and is a regional hub to and from the Caribbean, South, North and Central Ame ...

;United States *

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Miami International Airport Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically as Wilcox Field, is the primary international airport serving Miami and its Miami metropolitan area, surrounding metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of Florida. It hosts over 1, ...

Fleet

Over the years of its existence, Aeronica operated the following aircraft types:

Accidents and incidents

*On 12 December 1981, a bomb exploded inside the passenger cabin of a parked Aeronica

Boeing 727-100 The Boeing 727 is an American narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavier 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter flight lengths from smaller airp ...

(

registered Registered may refer to: * Registered mail, letters, packets or other postal documents considered valuable and in need of a chain of custody * Registered trademark symbol, symbol ® that provides notice that the preceding is a trademark or service ...

YN-BXW) at

, tearing a hole into the fuselage. The captain, two flight attendants, and a ground worker were injured. They had been on board the aircraft for pre-departure checks for a scheduled passenger flight to

and onwards to

. *On 10 May 1982, two hijackers demanded a

Curtiss-Wright C-46 Commando The Curtiss C-46 Commando is a low-wing A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highes ...

to leave its

Bluefields Bluefields is the capital of the South Caribbean Autonomous Region in Nicaragua. It was also the capital of the former Kingdom of Mosquitia, and later the Zelaya Department, which was divided into North and South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Reg ...

- Big Corn Island route and land in

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

instead. The pilots obeyed and landed at

Limón Limón (), also known as Puerto Limón, is the capital city of both the province and canton of the same name. One of Costa Rica's seven "middle cities" (i.e., main cities outside of San José's Greater Metropolitan Area), Limón has a populat ...

, where the perpetrators surrendered. *On 29 June 1983, an Aeronica

CASA C-212 Aviocar The CASA C-212 Aviocar is a turboprop-powered STOL medium cargo aircraft designed and built by Spanish aircraft manufacturer Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA). It is designed for use by both civil and military operators. The C-212 was ...

(registered YN-BYZ) was damaged beyond economical repair in a crash landing at

, which happened because the copilot had accidentally applied

reverse thrust Reverse or reversing may refer to: Arts and media *Reverse (Eldritch album), ''Reverse'' (Eldritch album), 2001 *Reverse (2009 film), ''Reverse'' (2009 film), a Polish comedy-drama film *Reverse (2019 film), ''Reverse'' (2019 film), an Iranian cr ...

rather than the flaps immediately before landing. *On 20 April 1985, a problem was encountered with the additional fuel tanks that a

Fokker F27 Friendship The Fokker F27 Friendship is a turboprop airliner developed and manufactured by the Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. It is the most numerous post-war aircraft manufactured in the Netherlands; the F27 was also one of the most successful Europe ...

(registered YN-BZF) had been fitted with for the delivery flight to Aeronica from Europe to Nicaragua. The pilots decided to return to Kulusuk Airport in

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

, the place of their most recent fuel stop, but failed to do so. The aircraft crashed on a snow-covered strip, killing two of the five occupants. *On 28 December 1987 at 14:36 local time, an Aeronica

Douglas DC-6 The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1946 to 1958. Originally intended as a military transport near the end of World War II, Douglas reworked it after the war to compete ...

lost its inner right engine whilst en route a cargo flight from Managua to

. Debris had also damaged the outer right engine, forcing the pilots to execute a

water landing In aviation, a water landing is, in the broadest sense, an aircraft landing on a body of water. Seaplanes, such as floatplanes and flying boats, land on water as a normal operation. Ditching is a controlled emergency landing on the water su ...

in a river in

, which all six persons on board survived. *The worst accident in the history of Aeronica happened on 26 May 1988, when another DC-6 (registered YN-CBE) crashed near Limón in Costa Rica, killing the six occupants. *On 10 November 1991, an Aeronica Boeing 727-100 (registered YN-BXW, the same aircraft that had been damaged in a bomb explosion in 1981) was destroyed in a fire at Managua Airport, which had arisen from an ignited

oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...

leak during maintenance work.

References

{{Portal, Nicaragua, Aviation Defunct airlines of Nicaragua Airlines established in 1981 Airlines disestablished in 1992