QCOSTARICA – This Sunday morning, minutes after midnight, the Mexican airline Aeroméxico resumed operations at the Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) with a first flight of the three scheduled per week from Mexico City.
The flights will operate on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays with takeoff from Mexico City (MEX); and Tuesday, Friday and Sunday, leaving Costa Rica, said the the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT), in a statement.
The first of the company’s reactivation flights landed in San Jose with 100 passengers on board; the first Aeroméxico flight in eight months since the closure of air borders decreed on March 19 as a preventive measure against COVID-19.
“Mexico is the third most important tourist market for Costa Rica, only preceded by the United States of America and Canada. The return of Aeromexico rekindles the hope of economic reactivation for both nations,” said Gustavo Sgura, Costa Rica’s Minister of Tourism.
According to data from Costa Rica’s immigration service, in 2019 there were 97,173 international arrivals from Mexico.
Giancarlo Molinelli, director of the Global Sales area of Aeroméxico, described as “an honor” for his company to resume flights to “a destination as important to us as Costa Rica.”
Pre-pandemic, Aeroméxico, for 10 years, connected Mexico with Costa Rica; A nation that the airline classifies as “a Central American destination with a privileged location that allows visitors to enjoy beaches of both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, live extreme adventures in its volcanoes, tropical forests and waterfalls, as well as discover the interesting culture that characterizes them.”
Ealier this month Costa Rica opened its air borders to Mexico and Central America; on November 1, it will open its air borders to the rest of the world.
No word yet on when the land borders will be reopened. Currently, entry into Costa Rica of foreigners is temporarily restricted until October 31, 2020.
