- Beginning on November 10, Aeroméxico will begin operations between Mexico City and Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia.
- More than 100,000 Mexicans visited Costa Rica in 2017, a figure that led the airline to open a new route to the country.
The President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado Quesada, announced that Aeroméxico will start operating a route between Mexico City and Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia. The prestigious airline will offer two weekly flights starting on November 10.
The announcement was made on Thursday in the Casa Presidencial with the participation of the Minister of Tourism, Maria Amalia Revelo, and the deputies Rodolfo Peña Flores of the Social Christian Union Party and Welmer Ramos from the Citizens’ Action Party.
Aeroméxico will begin operations on the 10th of November until the 21st of April (the high season for visits from Mexico). The high-profile airline will offer 2 weekly flights using Embraer 190 airplanes, which seat 99 passengers.
Over the last decade, visits from Mexico have seen a considerable increase. By the end of 2017, over 100,000 arrivals were registered from the country, showing the keen interest in this market for Costa Rica's tourism offerings.
“Tourism is being converted into a powerful source of job creation in every part of the country, from direct jobs to those created from positive knock-on effects. We will continue to strengthen this sector, with more air routes, more tourists, and, as a result, more economic development for our country”, said President Alvarado.
According to ICT figures, more than 500,000 Mexicans will have high levels of interest in taking a vacation in Costa Rica in 2019, a signal of a growing market. With this promising backdrop, the tourism board revealed that it has been in talks with Aeroméxico to come to a cooperative agreement with Aeroméxico that would allow for Costa Rica to be promoted in the Mexican market and support the development of this new route.
Mexico is the second-highest source of investments in Costa Rica in the Americas, after the United States. 37 companies currently operate within the country's borders. Since the signing of a free trade agreement in 1994, commerce between the countries has been streamlined, with an average annual growth of 8 per cent over the last few years.
The Minister of Tourism, Maria Amalia Revelo, noted that Aeroméxico's launch of operations in Daniel Oduber International Airport will have the clear effect of bringing greater tourist development to Guanacaste and other nearby regions.
“The arrival of this new route to Daniel Oduber International Airport will give tourists the opportunity to enter through Guanacaste to some of the preferred destinations for this market, with a focus on vacations, leasure and recreation”, Revelo noted.
She added that more than half of Mexican tourists consider Costa Rica to be an ideal destination for trips for couples and families. “With these efforts, we will be able to continue our promotion of the development of small and medium tourist enterprises, which will be a plus for the well-being of families who live from the tourism sector”, the minister concluded.
Sergio Allard, Executive Director of Institutional Relations, noted that “this announcement is a fundamental part of our strategy to increase connectivity to and from Mexico. During this season, our clients can enjoy a more complete offering that will give them the option to arrive in Costa Rica through San José and return to Mexico City via Liberia, or vice versa”.
CORIPORT, the operator of Daniel Oduber International Airport affirmed that the arrival of Aeroméxico to the airport would not only benefit the tourism options for Mexican passengers, but that it would also facilitate a number of connections from around the world.
“We are delighted by the arrival of Aeroméxico, an airline whose quality and passenger care are internationally renowned. As administrators of the airport, we are also thankful for a series of synergies by which the entire private tourism sector came together to make the launch of this route possible”, said César Jaramillo, General Manager of CORIPORT.
Aeroméxico is an airline that has operated in Central America and the Caribbean for over 11 years. Currently, it offers two daily flights to Mexico City from San José, making Liberia its second destination in the country that it will connect to Mexico City.
The itinerary of the flights will be as follows:
Liberia, Costa Rica- Mexico City**
AM 2657 12:06 p.m. 3:10 p.m. Saturday, Sunday
Mexico City – Liberia, Costa Rica**
AM 2656 8:15 a.m. 11:06 a.m. Saturday, Sunday
* The times listed are the local times in each country and are subject to change without warning. ** From November 10, 2018 and April 21, 2019.
The itineraries have been planned such that Aeroméxico customers will have excellent options to catch the connections the airline offers to Mexico, the United States and Canada.
