Luis Munoz Marin International Airport
Facts on SJU
Baseball star Roberto Clemente died on December 31, 1972, when his cargo plane crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from this airport — then still called Isla Verde — on a relief flight bound for earthquake-stricken Nicaragua; neither his body nor the wreckage was ever recovered.
Source: Wikipedia
The airport is named for Luis Muñoz Marín, who was Puerto Rico's first popularly elected governor, serving 16 consecutive years from 1949 to 1965; he founded the Popular Democratic Party in 1938, is regarded as the architect of the island's Commonwealth status, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from JFK in 1963.
Source: Wikipedia
San Juan's airport opened in 1955 as Isla Verde International Airport, named simply for its beachfront district; it wasn't renamed for Luis Muñoz Marín, who spent his political career shaping Puerto Rico's status, until 1985, five years after his death in 1980.
SJU processed 13,643,689 passengers in 2025, making it the busiest airport in Puerto Rico and the insular Caribbean; it handles 93% of the island's passenger air traffic and 90% of its air cargo.
Source: Wikipedia
In 2013 the airport was privatized, with Aerostar Airport Holdings taking over operations for 40 years — making SJU only the second airport to be privatized in the United States and its territories, and, as of 2025, the sole one still under private management.
Source: Wikipedia
The Puerto Rico Air National Guard's 156th Airlift Wing is based at the airport's Muñiz base, flying air-mobility missions for U.S. Southern Command — moving personnel, equipment and supplies across Latin America and the Caribbean in wartime and training alike.
Source: Wikipedia
Terminal B opened in 1985 as a $40 million, 365,000-square-foot facility built for a single carrier, Eastern Airlines, with 11 wide-body gates; after Eastern collapsed, it was expanded in three phases into today's 25-gate, multi-airline concourse.
Source: Wikipedia
JetBlue is San Juan's largest carrier by far, running 51 daily flights on an average day out of Terminal A, its dedicated focus-city terminal that opened in 2012.
Source: Wikipedia