QCOSTARICA – The arrival of more airlines to Costa Rica, the opening of new routes and frequencies and the reactivation of airlines that paralyzed by the pandemic, could lead to a rebound in international tourism for the second semester.
In addition, it opens a wide range of options for Costa Ricans to vacation abroad.
For example, Avianca Costa Rica is processing applications for new connections with a direct flight to Miami and another to Los Angeles with a stopover in Guatemala, starting in July, announced Álvaro Vargas, director of Civil Aviation.
For its part, Volaris Costa Rica began the process to be able to fly to Medellín and Bogotá, in Colombia, at the end of 2021.
And, as for the new airlines, Iberojet, from the Barceló Group, will start operations this June, with two weekly flights from Madrid, Spain.
There are also returns, such as that of the Dutch airline KLM and the British charter airline, TUI, which will reactivate their flights to Daniel Oduber airport in Liberia, starting in June.
Southwest Airlines is also expected to return to Costa Rica in June, however, there still is no official confirmation from the airline.
In addition to this, several airlines announced an increase in their frequencies. One of them is United Airlines, which will strengthen its operations to Costa Rica, and Lufthansa will expand its Frankfurt-Costa Rica frequency from three to five weekly flights during May.
“International traffic in both terminals shows a clear recovery, especially on weekends. We have already met with several airlines to process the new routes, as well as the arrival of Iberojet, which could be inaugurated at the end of June,” declared Vargas.
Prior to the pandemic, seven of the eight best US airlines flew to Costa Rica, according to the Wall Street Journal, with Delta considered the most efficient in the United States. The others are Alaska, Spirit, Southwest, Allegiant (does not fly to Costa Rica), American, United and JetBlue.
Since Costa Rica’s reopening of the international airports in August 2020, only Southwest has not yet returned.
Airlines flying to and from Costa Rica
- Aeroméxico to/from Mexico
- Air Canada to/from Toronto (currently flights are suspended to Central America and other destinations)
- Air France to/from Paris
- Air Transat: Suspended until further notice
- Alaska to/from Los Angeles.
- Albatross: Suspended until further notice
- American Airlines from/to Miami, New York
- Avianca expected to restart in July
- British Airways: Resumes operations this year (date not defined).
- Condor: Information pending
- Copa Airlines: to/from Panama and Guatemala
- Delta to/from Atlanta and Los Angeles
- Edelweiss from/to Zurich
- Iberia from/to Madrid
- Interjet: Pending information
- JetBlue to/from Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, New York and Los Angeles
- KLM expected to restart flights in June
- Latam resumes operations this year (date not defined).
- Lufthansa to/from Frankfurt
- Sansa (local airline) Available for charter flights
- Skyway: Pending information
- Southwest to restart operations this year (date undefined).
- Spirit from/to Fort Lauderdale
- Swift Air from.to Philidelphia
- United to/from Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and Washington
- Volaris to/from El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico City, Cancun, Los Angeles, Washington and New York.
- WestJet, waiting for information from the airline.
- Wing0 from/to Bogotá.
More information at Sjoairport.com.
