(QCOSTARICA) The European airlines Iberia (Spain) and the Lufthansa (Germany) have already provided Costa Rica’s Civil Aviation (DGAC) a date when they will reactivate their regular flights to Costa Rica.
Similarly, United Airlines, Spirit Airlines and Alaska Airlines had done the same.
With these confirmations, the number of airlines to reactive regular flights to and from Costa Rica when the air borders are reopened, to occur on August 1, is now 10.
“We are already solving the requests. For us, everything is part of a normal process, but the issue is that there are many at the moment filing their requests,” confirmed Álvaro Vargas, director of Civil Aviation.
Costa Rica’s land, sea, and air borders were restricted on March 18. The June 30 reopening was extended to August 1.
So what are the dates?
Lufthansa expects to resume flights between Frankfurt (FRA) and San Jose (SJO) on August 2; Iberia the following day, August 3, connecting San Jose to Madrid (MAD).
On August 3, low-cost airline Spirit Airlines is also looking to resume regular service between Costa Rica and Florida; and Alaska Airlines with service between San Jose and Los Angeles.
United would start up on August 2 at the Juan Santamaria in San Jose, at Daniel Oduber International Airport (LIR), in Liberia, Guanacaste
Last week, Aeris, the administrator of the Juan Santamaría International Airport, reported that Air France would resume flights on October 14, with its nonstop transfer to Paris, while British Airways, on October 27, to and from London.
Swiss airline Edelweiss is expected to resume flights on August 6, meanwhile, Canada’s Air Canada starting on September 12 to Juan Santamaría, and from September 8 to Liberia.
American Airlines is expected to start up on August 5 with exchanges to Miami (Florida) and Dallas (Houston) both to and from Juan Santamaria and Liberia.
Similarly, Delta confirmed its return to regular flights to Atlanta August 17, serving both San Jose and Liberia.
Vargas confirmed that, for now, Avianca, KLM, Copa, Interjet, Aeroméxico, JetBlue, Southwest and Condor have not filed their requests.
“The issue of airport protocols is the responsibility of Civil Aviation and we are looking after all its seriousness in compliance with the provisions of the Ministry of Health, and other national authorities, responsible for airports and airlines,” said Vargas.
For now, the expected frequencies of all the airlines are unknown, as they are in the process of formalizing arrangements.
On June 26, the Minister of Health, Daniel Salas, announced that the international airports would resume their activities on August 1 with flights that would initially only come from countries or cities that have “more controlled” the COVID-19.