Flying to Costa Rica

Overview

Of the fifteen or so Costa Rican airports with at least one regular connection, two serve international flights: Juan Santamaria Airport in San Jose and Liberia.

While the capital’s airport has always been the country’s main air gateway and the second busiest in Central America (after Panama City), handling 6 to 7 million passengers a year, Liberia’s airport has recently seen its traffic grow to reach 2 million passengers annually. The plan to make it a preferred access point to neighbouring Nicaragua, but above all to the Guanacaste region with its all-inclusive resorts, has indeed boosted its traffic. However, this is solely focused on Canada and the United States.

Local airlines

Costa Rica has a few small airlines, more or less representing the country, with Avianca Costa Rica—based in the capital—being the local subsidiary of Colombia’s Avianca. Also operating from their hub in San José are Sansa Airlines, Skyway Costa Rica, and Volaris Costa Rica, which primarily serve the country’s domestic network.

From France and Europe

Like most other Central American countries, Costa Rica does not have extensive direct connections to and from Europe. These are limited to San José from Madrid (Iberia), Amsterdam (KLM), Frankfurt (Lufthansa), and Paris (Air France).

From France, aside from the Air France flight, options will involve one or two stopovers in Europe and/or the USA, or even in Central America, with US or European airlines. In this case, the total journey time to reach the destination will be long, sometimes very long—from 15 hours at best to over a day when including layover times.

If price is a factor (expect an average of 600/900 €), journey duration, as well as the constraints of transiting through the United States if opting for US carriers, should be taken into account.

From the Americas

Canada

After the USA, Canada has the best regular flight connections to Costa Rica (mainly to the capital) or charter flights (mainly to Liberia).

Montreal: Liberia (Air Canada + Air Transat + Sunwing), San José (Air Transat).

Toronto: Liberia (Air Canada + Air Transat + Sunwing + WestJet), San José (Air Canada + Air Transat).

United States

This is the best-connected country, not least because the USA provides the largest number of visitors to Costa Rica. Atlanta (Delta), Chicago (United), Houston (American, United), Florida (American, JetBlue, Spirit), Los Angeles (Avianca CR, Delta), New York (American, United), and Washington (United) are among the cities with direct flights to San José. Liberia also benefits from regular or seasonal connections to and from Atlanta (Delta), Houston (United), New York (JetBlue), and others.

Central America and the Caribbean

El Salvador: Liberia (Avianca ES) and San José (Avianca CR + Volaris)

Guatemala: San José (Avianca CR + Copa)

Honduras (San Pedro and Tegucigalpa): San José (Avianca CR + Copa)

Mexico: San José (Avianca CR for Cancún + Aeroméxico, Avianca CR for Mexico City)

Nicaragua: San José (Avianca CR + Copa)

Panama: Liberia (Copa) and San José (Avianca CR, Copa...)

Dominican Republic: San José (Arajet)

South America

Argentina (Buenos Aires): San José (Avianca CR)

Colombia: San José (Avianca CR)

Ecuador: San José (Avianca CR)

Peru: San José (LATAM)