New Southwest flights to Costa Rica from Houston, Baltimore

Southwest Airlines announced it will expand its operations in Costa Rica with new flights to Daniel Oduber International Airport (LIR) in Liberia, Guanacaste. One flight will arrive from Houston every day starting November 2 and another will arrive from Baltimore on Saturdays starting November 7.

The new flights will bring to 22 the number of weekly Southwest flights to the country’s international airports in San José and Liberia.

Tourism Minister Mauricio Ventura Aragón said the U.S. carrier’s confirmation is great news for Costa Rica.

“The United States is our main source market of tourists so this news fills us with great optimism,” Ventura said Thursday. “We will keep growing thanks to our strategy for attracting airlines,” he said.

Ventura also highlighted the airline’s renewed interest in flying to the northwestern province of Guanacaste. According to the minister, Southwest’s new flights will further increase the number of international arrivals to Daniel Oduber International Airport, which last year recorded 378,485 visitors, a 14.6 percent increase from 2013.

Hermes Navarro del Valle, director of investment attraction at the Costa Rican Tourism Board, said Southwest’s decision to expand its routes here is a direct result of efforts from his office’s airline attraction plan.

Southwest recently started daily flights to the Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) from Baltimore (BWI), and earlier this year it confirmed the start of a daily flight from Houston to SJO starting in October.