Published on Wednesday, June 5, 2024

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The Texas-headquartered airline, Southwest, launched more flights between the U.S. and Costa Rica, announced the Institute of Tourism.

New flights are between the Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) in Alajuela Province, the Orlando International Airport (MCO), the Baltimore Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI) and the Denver International Airport (DEN).

The daily flights from SJO to MCO depart from Costa Rica at 8:55 a.m. local time to arrive at MCO at 2:15 p.m. ET. Then, from MCO, the flights will depart at 11:30 a.m. ET to arrive at SJO at 12:45 p.m. local time.

The two additional flights between BWI and DEN to SJO will be on Saturdays and Sundays.  Additional information about these flight schedules can be found on the airline website.

Southwest opened flights between the United States and Costa Rica in 2015.

According to statistics from the Institute of Tourism, the United States is the main tourist market for Costa Rica. As of April, over 645,000 U.S. tourists visited the country by air.

They preferred to visit beaches and national parks. Among the main activities, they enjoy learning more about flora and fauna, visiting volcanoes and surfing among others.

Over 884,000 tourists arrived in the country via air between January and March 2024, representing a 16.8% rise over the same period in 2023, noted the tourism authorities.

The country reported a new tourism record reached in 2023, with more than 2,4 million travelers.

This is one of many international airlines increasing the frequency of their flights to Costa Rica.   Recently, Air Transat, one of the major airlines in Canada and Costa Rica, announced an increase in the number of flights offered in anticipation of the upcoming North American summer season.

  

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