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American Airlines expanding service to Costa Rica

Visitors to Costa Rica will have additional flight options when the world’s largest airline expands it service to the country.

Starting Dec. 18, 2019, American Airlines will offer a second daily flight from its Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) hub to Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) and another to Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR).

The flights will be served by Boeing 737-800 aircraft, according to the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT). Both will be red-eyes — departing from Dallas to Costa Rica at night and returning to the United States in the early morning.

The new flights will go on-sale Monday, May 13.

“These new services between Dallas-Fort Worth, San José and Liberia-Guanacaste are a sign of our strong commitment to Costa Rica,” said Rafael Sánchez, American Airlines’s regional manager overseeing Central America. “Costa Rica was the first country in Central America where American began operating almost 30 years ago, and today our presence is stronger than ever and we continue to grow.”

American Airlines currently operates the following routes to Costa Rica: 

  • DFW to SJO (daily) 
  • Miami to SJO (3x daily)
  • Charlotte, North Carolina to SJO (daily)
  • Phoenix, Arizona to SJO (weekly, and daily during tourism high season)
  • DFW to LIR (5 days per week)
  • Miami to LIR (2x daily)
  • Charlotte to LIR (2 days per week during tourism high season)

The two new flights to DFW will bring American Airlines’s presence in Costa Rica to 77 flights each week during tourism high season.

“Texas is one of the states where there is a significant amount of travel to Costa Rica from the United States of America, and a night flight like this is especially appreciated by business travelers because it allows them to work all day at their destination of origin and fly back in the early morning without losing the next day of work in Dallas,” said María Amalia Revelo, the Minister of Tourism.

In 2018, Costa Rica welcomed 1,265,067 visitors from the United States, comprising 42% of the country’s total number of international arrivals.

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