(QCOSTARICA) Air France and British Airways confirmed that they will reactivate their regular flights to Costa Rica in October, while Edelweiss would do so in August, reported Aeris, the manager of the Juan Santamaría International (San Jose) airport.
Aeris said that British Airways with service to London, England would begin to haul tourists to and from the old continent to staring October 11; Air France, with service to Paris, would do so from October 14. Edelweiss, which flies to Zurich (Switzerland), would start flights on August 6.
For its part, Air Canada confirmed its return to normal flights for Toronto on September 1. Meanwhile, American Airlines would start on August 5 with service to Miami (Florida) and Dallas (Houston); Delta confirmed its return to operations to Atlanta (Georgia) starting August 17.
The expected frequencies of all airlines are yet unknown, as they are still in the process of formalizing their renewal of operations before Costa Rica’s Civil Aviation.
On June 26, Minister of Health, Daniel Salas, announced that the international airports, the Juan Santamaría (SJO) and Daniel Oduber, in Liberia, Guanacaste (LIR) would resume their activities on August 1, with flights that would initially only come from countries or cities that have “more controlled” disease, referring to COVID-19.
This past Monday, Public Security Minister, Micheal Soto, reconfirmed the August 1 reopening of borders to international tourists.
Last week, the European Union (EU) left Costa Rica out of the initial “safe” list of countries authorized to resume commercial flights to the 27 EU nations, within the gradual lifting of restrictions on non-essential travel from countries external to the EU.
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The manager of the San Jose airport clarified that all the operations foreseen in July by Iberia (Madrid, Spain) and United (Texas) are rescue flights – that is only Costa Rican nationals and foreigners with residence (and not having left Costa Rica after March 25) coming in – but anyone may flight out as long as they meet travel requirements to the destination country.
Iberia has a scheduled flight that will leave Costa Rica on July 11 specifically for permitted travelers to the EU in Costa Rica (see image below); the incoming flight arrives from Madrid the day prior.
For now, the follow-up Iberia flight is on July 17.
Meanwhile United has limited weekly service to and from Houston, Texas.
The borders have been closed to international tourists since March 18. The measure was originally until June 30, however, the growth in the number of cases prompted the Ministry of Health to extend to August 1.
The situation is hitting hard on the tourism sector, which claims to have protocols in place to receive visitors safely.
