Flying to Puerto Rico

Overview

With Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport located on the outskirts of San Juan, Puerto Rico has the leading air hub in the entire Caribbean. Each year, over 8.5 million passengers (8.733 million in 2015) use it to travel to the island or connect to other destinations. Unsurprisingly, traffic to and from the USA and the Caribbean is particularly dense, thanks in large part to the American airline JetBlue Airways, which is well-established and the island’s top carrier, with around fifty daily flights.

In addition to San Juan (which also has a second, smaller airport), other Puerto Rican cities have airports of varying sizes. Aguadilla (on the west of the island) and Ponce (in the south) have limited traffic to and from New York and Florida, with annual passenger numbers of 250,000 and 120,000 respectively. Otherwise, the airports on the islands of Vieques and Culebra, with their flights to and from Puerto Rico, account for most of the remaining activity.

Types of flights

Local airlines

Beyond several well-established US carriers (Air Sunshine, Cape Air, JetBlue, etc.), Puerto Rico also has a few smaller airlines of its own:

Air Flamenco: Based in Culebra, it serves San Juan, Ceiba, and Vieques on scheduled flights, as well as some Caribbean islands on charter.

Culebra Air Services: Regular connections between Culebra, San Juan, Vieques, and Fajardo, plus charter flights to certain destinations in the Antilles.

Seaborne Airlines: Flights between San Juan and around fifteen Caribbean destinations.

Vieques Air Link: Based on Vieques Island, it operates over 30 daily flights to several cities in Puerto Rico, Culebra, and the US and British Virgin Islands.

Charters, scheduled flights, and low-cost

Deals and special offers

From France and Europe

Direct flights from Europe are quite limited. There are no flights from France, and only services to Madrid (Air Europa and Iberia, seasonal), Frankfurt (Condor), plus London and Scandinavia with Norwegian. For most travelers, this means taking a connecting flight via one of these European cities or, more simply, the United States (primarily New York or Florida). Note that for French travelers, it’s also possible to transit via the French Antilles, which are well-connected to San Juan. Otherwise, from Paris, expect a minimum of around twelve hours of flight time for a round-trip costing between 550 and 900 €.

From the United States (and Canada)

As expected, flights from the United States dominate the island’s traffic and account for the majority of passengers. The top ten routes to and from Puerto Rico are all US destinations, with Florida leading at over 1.2 million passengers per year (across three airports) and New York close behind with around a million passengers on JFK and Newark. Each week, over 500 direct flights connect the island to the United States. In short, the options are plentiful, with around twenty US cities linked to Puerto Rico via regular or seasonal flights.

Note that while the vast majority of flights serve San Juan, Aguadilla (on the west of the island) and Ponce (in the south) also have connections to New York and Florida.

Canada

Only Toronto Airport has direct flights to San Juan, either year-round with WestJet or seasonally with Air Canada.

From the Caribbean and Latin America

Caribbean

Central and South America

Bogotá (with Avianca), Cancún (Volaris), and Panama (Copa Airlines) are the only destinations with direct flights to Puerto Rico.