QCOSTARICA – The numbers are bouncing back in terms of tourist arrivals, in particular in the North Pacific area of Guanacaste, where the Daniel Oduber International Airport (LIR), in Liberia, reported that in June of this year it reached the number of passengers of the same month before the pandemic.
In a statement, Coriport, the airport concessionaire, explained that in the sixth month of this year the number of passenger traffic through the terminal represented 98% of the total in June 2019.
If you will recall, last year (2020), the country’s airports and borders were closed to tourist arrival from last week in March to August 1.
The report, however, did not provide absolute passenger traffic figures.
Meanwhile, Aeris, the manager of the Juan Santamaría international airport or San Jose Airport (SJO), indicates that in the month of June of this year a total of 254,454 passengers passed through that terminal, which represents 64% of the 397,594 travelers registered in June of 2019.
Through the Juan Santamaría, throughout the first semester of 2021, the terminal handled a total of 1,128,418 passengers, entering and leaving the country. This six-month accumulated represents around 50% of the passenger volume for the same period of 2019, explained Erick Barboza, Aeris Commercial Director.
He added that “the growth responds to a process in the midst of a persistent health context, marked in recent months by important departures of Costa Ricans to the United States, as well as the arrival of visitors to our country”.
For its part, the Coriport announced that the upturn in traffic at the terminal has been taking place strongly since March of this year, in the high tourism season for Costa Rica, but the recovery was maintained in May and June, months considered low season.
“Guanacaste consolidates its leadership as a destination desired by tourists visiting Costa Rica. Throughout the first half of the year, passenger traffic has grown steadily,” Coriport said in the statement.
This is because all US airlines, such as American Airlines, United and JetBlue, have restarted their operations to the Guanacaste airport, with an increase of 14% compared to June 2019, since they were able to increase the frequencies of flights and open new routes.
The Daniel Oduber airport manager recalled that the Study on the Perception of Safe Destinations, published by The Blueroom Project, in Spain, places Costa Rica among the five world destinations with the best travel prospects, leading the preference on the American continent.
It also highlighted that for the second semester of the year, new flights have already been announced from Denver, Colorado by Southwest airlines, and American from Austin, Texasdc starting in November.
