United Airlines resumed nonstop operations between Houston – Intercontinental (IAH) and Managua (MGA) after almost three years. The Chicago-based airline is the third U.S. carrier to resume operations in Nicaragua, after American Airlines and Spirit.
Flight UA 1432, operated in a Boeing 737 registered under registration number N87513, took off with 166 passengers from George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) at 10:21 local time and landed at Augusto César Sandino International Airport (MGA) at 13:09, after two hours and 49 minutes.
United is the only airline connecting Nicaragua with the state of Texas, and Managua (MGA) is the airline’s tenth Central American destination served from Houston (IAH). According to data obtained through Cirium, the airline will offer 2,324 weekly seats on this route, representing an 86.2% increase in capacity compared to pre-pandemic levels.
«On behalf of United Airlines we are very pleased to serve Nicaragua again, we have 33 years of flying to Nicaragua and it is extremely important to be able to reestablish for us this route, especially with a professional team that have made this possible,» said Patrick Qualye, Senior Vice President of Network Planning and Global Alliances of United Airlines.
#LaRed905 || La #Aerolínea United Airlines reanuda #operaciones en #Nicaragua.
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Ver: CCC/César Pérez pic.twitter.com/hJX1hBt2v0
— Radio Nicaragua (@Nicaragua905) January 4, 2023
Flight Itinerary
- Houston – Managua Flight UA 1432 IAH 09:47 – MGA 13:08 daily flights.
- Managua – Houston Flight UA 1433 MGA 14:15 – IAH 17:41 daily flights.
The route is operated by Boeing 737-800 Next Generation aircraft with 166 seats (16 Business Class/150 Economy).
United’s Central American network offers nonstop service to Belize City (BZE), Guatemala City (GUA), Liberia/Guanacaste (LIR), Managua (MGA), Panama – Tocumen (PTY), Roatán (RTB), San Salvador (SAL), San Pedro Sula (SAP), San José de Costa Rica (SJO) and Tegucigalpa/Palmerola (XPL).
Nicaragua more internationally connected
At the end of 2022, American Airlines and Spirit resumed operations to Augusto César Sandino International Airport (MGA) from Miami (MIA) and Fort Lauderdale (FLL) respectively. Currently, the market to Florida is the largest capacity market between Nicaragua and the United States.
The airline SANSA began service from San José de Costa Rica (SJO) to the Nicaraguan capital with three weekly flights and the Colombian low-cost operator Wingo requested flights to operate between Bogota (BOG) and Managua (MGA).
See also: United Airlines alters flight schedule on the Newark – Madrid route