Corn Island Airport

Corn Island International Airport
Corn Island International Airport
	IATA: RNI; ICAO: MNCI;
Summary
Airport type	Military/Public
Owner	Republic of Nicaragua
Operator	EAAI
Serves	Great Corn Island
Location	Great Corn Island
Focus city for	La Costeña
Elevation AMSL	18 ft / 5 m
Coordinates	12°10′17″N 83°03′38″W / 12.17139°N 83.06056°W
Map
	RNI Location in Nicaragua
Runways
	Source: GCM Google Maps

Corn Island International Airport (IATA: RNI, ICAO: MNCI) is a civil-military public International Airport that serves Great Corn Island in the South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region of Nicaragua and located in the island's downtown area known locally as Brig Bay, The airport is managed by the state-run Administrative Company of International Airports, more commonly known as the EAAI given its Spanish name, the Empresa Administradora de Aeropuertos Internacionales.

The Bluefields NDB (ident: CIS) is located at the airport.^[3]

The runway at the airport is 6,234 ft (1,900 m) long, and is at an elevation of 18 ft (5.5 m) above sea level.

Expansion

An expansion programme was underway by 2011, and by 2013 it was completed with the expansion of the runway from 4,750 feet (1,450 m) to 6,234 feet (1,900 m), and then the old runway was refurbished. Lights were going to be added to the runway, but as of 2023 there still has been no further information about the project.

The Terminal was also refurbished and modernized with new infrastructure upgrades, x-ray machines, two immigration offices, two cafeterias and a new parking lot.

The runway was extended so that medium-sized jet aircraft can land there such as the Embraer E-Jet, the Gulfstream G and the Bombardier Challenger. With a range of 2,150 nautical miles (3,980 km; 2,470 mi) and a minimum takeoff run of 1,644 metres (5,394 ft), the Embraer E-170 could, in theory, reach Corn Island Airport from airports throughout the East Coast of the United States as well as from the Caribbean and the northern mainland of South America. However, no further facilities to handle such a plane exist at the airport. Furthermore, the website of the Nicaraguan aviation authority informing about the airport only lists smaller regional airliners such as the ATR-72 as being capable of serving the airport despite already mentioning the current (lengthened) runway dimensions.^[4]