Headquartered in the capital Managua, it operated scheduled passenger flights within South and Central America, as well as to the United States.

[3] The company bought the assets of a local airline called Flota Aérea Nicaragüense (FANSA) in 1950, acquiring the control of the lucrative routes to the mining towns of Bonanza and Siuna in the north.

[4] At March 1955 (1955-03), the fleet comprised seven DC-3s and one Navion that operated local routes;[5] that year, the airline carried 21,852 passengers.

[12] Starting in May 1972, LANICA operated four examples of the larger four-engined Convair 880 jet airliner on their scheduled passenger services to Miami.

[16][17] The shares held by the Somoza family —the major stockholders at the time— were seized by the Junta of National Reconstruction,[17] but the airline's debts were not absorbed by the new government.