By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Wednesday a TS796 Air Transat flight from Vancouver landed at the Juan Santamaría International Airport, in Alajuela. After a one-hour stopover, the flight took off to the Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport in Guanacaste.

The flight connects for the first time Vancouver, located on the Pacific coast of Canada, with two international airports in Costa Rica. This is known as a triangular flight.

The flight is offered twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The special schedule will continue during the peak tourist season, until April 25.

The airline offers this direct service with an Airbus A321 Neo LR model aircraft. According to the airline, it is a completely new aircraft with a capacity for 199 passengers that stands out for its low fuel consumption and low CO2 emissions in aircraft of this class.

The flight schedule is:

Departing from Vancouver at 6:30 a.m. local time and arriving at Alajuela at 4:25 p.m. local time. Then leaving from Alajuela at 5:25 p.m. to arrive at Liberia at 6 p.m.

Then, the flight offers direct flights to Vancouver, leaving from Guanacaste at 6:40 p.m., making a brief stop in Alajuela, and arriving in Canada at 12:20 a.m. local time.

“Air Transat becomes from this Wednesday, the second airline that offers a triangular flight chaining the city of origin of the flight, in this case, Vancouver-Canada, with our two international airports: Juan Santamaría and Daniel Oduber. This opens an opportunity to multiply the tourism, generate jobs and continue improving Costa Rica as a tourist destination,” said María Amalia Revelo, minister of Tourism.

According to the Ministry of Tourism, the coordination of triangulated flights constitutes an operational challenge for the two main airports in Costa Rica.

Passengers from Vancouver, Canada, can leave the plane either in Alajuela or Guanacaste. Similarly, the passenger can return to Vancouver directly from either the Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport or board at Juan Santamaría.

Air Transat also operates weekly flights to Juan Santamaría from the cities of Montreal on Mondays and Fridays and from Toronto on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

In the case of Daniel Oduber in Liberia, flights are three times a week: to Toronto on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and to Montreal on Wednesdays and Fridays.

According to the statistics of the ministry, between January and November of this year, 187,941 Canadian tourists entered the country at an international airport air.

Canada continues to be the second country with the highest number of tourists to Costa Rica, said the ministry.

In addition, there was a 9.9% increase in tourists compared to the same period last year.

The largest number of arrivals of Canadians to Costa Rica occurs in the months of December to March.

According to studies by the Costa Rican Tourism Institute, 42% of Canadians visiting Costa Rica travel as a couple, 24% as a family, 22% alone and 9% with friends.

The average stay of visitors from Canada is 14 nights and the average cost per person is $110 per day, according to ministry statistics.




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Which another city in Canada merits direct flights to Costa Rica? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com

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