Managua's previous airport, Xolotlan Airport, which was located about east of Managua, built in 1915, and it quickly became too small for Managua's airline service growth. In 1942, the
Nicaraguan Government and
Pan American Airways signed a contract to construct an airport by Las Mercedes Country Estate. Las Mercedes was further upgraded, re-designed to handle
Boeing 707 aircraft, and re-inaugurated in July 1968 by
Anastasio Somoza Debayle. In the early 1970s, Las Mercedes was expanded to more modern standards; this included 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. By 1975,
LANICA,
Pan Am,
KLM,
TACA Airlines,
Sahsa,
Avianca,
Iberia,
SAM,
TAN,
Varig, and other 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, which installed two new boarding bridges. Las Mercedes served as a hub for many of Nicaragua's flag carriers, such as
LANICA (until 1978),
Aeronica (1981–1992), and
NICA (1992–2004). 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 that measures in length, and is at an elevation of . ==Expansion==