If you fly into Costa Rica and connect onward to Drake Bay, Tortuguero, Nosara or Puerto Jiménez, the government wants to move that second leg to a different airport. Under a plan announced yesterdat, domestic flights would shift out of Juan Santamaría International in Alajuela and over to Tobías Bolaños International in Pavas, on the western side of San José. The stated purpose is to clear space at Juan Santamaría for international traffic, which has grown faster than the terminal was built to handle.
For you, the change means a ground transfer between two airports on the day you arrive. Right now, an international arrival and a domestic departure happen under one roof. Under the plan, they would not. The government has not said when the shift would take effect, and no transition date has been published. Nothing changes for flights booked this season.
To make Pavas ready for that traffic, the government said it will spend close to $30 million modernizing the airport. Tobías Bolaños currently handles charter operations, flight schools and small domestic carriers, and it has never worked as a connection point for arriving international passengers.
That is the part worth watching. A short runway and a small terminal can absorb more departures without necessarily absorbing more people waiting, checking bags, and asking where their luggage went. Whether the upgrade covers passenger handling or only the airfield has not been detailed.
In Guanacaste, the government said it will put ₡3,000 million, or roughly $6.6 million, into expanding the apron at Daniel Oduber Quirós International in Liberia so more private aircraft can park there. The province has seen steady growth in arrivals, and private aviation has grown with it.
Liberia is also getting a longer-term plan. The government intends to fold a cargo terminal into the airport’s new master plan and its next concession process, aimed at moving fresh produce and agricultural exports out of Guanacaste directly rather than trucking them across the country. The larger build is projected for around 2030.
The third piece is Limón. The government described a comprehensive expansion of the Caribbean city’s international airport, without releasing figures or a timeline. Limón has an international designation but effectively no scheduled international service, and successive governments have talked about changing that for more than a decade.
Taken together, the three projects are pitched as a regional strategy rather than three separate builds. “Developing a country is not only about constructing buildings, it is about building capacity to produce, to export, to attract investment and to generate employment,” the government said in announcing the package.
The timing tracks a busy year for air service into Costa Rica. Arrivals reached 2,001,660 through July, up 6.4% over the same period in 2025, with the United States accounting for 57% of that total and Canadian arrivals climbing 24.4%.
Airlines have responded. Southwest begins daily service between Las Vegas and San José on 1 October. British Airways moves to five weekly flights between October and March and shifts its operation to Heathrow. Lufthansa goes from three to five weekly flights out of Frankfurt for the winter season, and United opens a Washington-Dulles route into Liberia on 17 December.
That growth is precisely the pressure the Pavas plan is meant to relieve. It is also the reason the transition details matter to anyone planning a trip that involves two flights. Until a date is published, plan your connections the way you always have. If and when domestic departures move, build in transfer time — and check which airport your second boarding pass names, not just the city.
