Southwest Airlines Increases Operations in Costa Rica

Airline announces new daily flight from Los Angeles to the Daniel Oduber International Airport.

December 14, 2015 – Southwest Airlines continues to increase its operations in Costa Rica, this time with a new daily flight from Los Angeles, California to the Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport, beginning in April 2016.

For Mauricio Ventura, Minister of Tourism, this news is of upmost importance for Costa Rica, since California is the main state that groups the largest number of best prospects for Costa Rica; therefore, it increases the possibility of flights, facilitating another flight for tourists to wish to visit Costa Rica.

“Almost eight months ago, we witnessed the inaugural flight of Southwest on the Baltimore-San Jose route and in the previous month, we inaugurated the routes Houston-San Jose, Houston – Liberia, and Baltimore-Liberia, where both benefiting airports will invigorate the tourism for the entire country,” highlighted Ventura.

The airline selected Costa Rica as its first Central American destination and the Los Angeles – Liberia connection represents the first international Southwest route for this US city.

On his part, Hermes Navarro, Head of ICT Investment Attractions, assured that: “This new flight commences the competition for the west coast market in the US towards Liberia. We hope that this will bring as a result a stimulus in the market and an increase in travelers toward the Daniel Oduber Airport.”

Costa Rica, Magnet for the Airlines

Initiating flights to a new destination is one of the most important decisions for an airline. According to Ventura, there needs to be an analysis that supersedes a five year evaluation in relation with the cost-benefit, the profitability of a new route and the concordance of a new growth strategy, and the consideration of factors such as the cost of fuel, aircraft capacity, destination demand, and security, all of which are decisive in taking this step.

“This is a daily job contemplated in our Airline Attraction Strategy and because of this there will be more positive news for our country. The rapport will continue to attract more airlines from our main-source tourist markets and to strengthen the relations with the existing airlines, with the objective of increasing the number of available seats so that those with great interest in visiting Costa Rica have air connections available to fly them to visit Costa Rica. Also, noteworthy are the benefits generated for international business thanks to the capacity of cargo transportation of these airlines,” said Ventura.

Presently, Costa Rica offers connections from Costa Rica´s main international airports to 70 destinations worldwide.

Source: Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT)