- The Daniel Oduber International Airport will be the first in Latin America to welcome this kind of airplane with 16 seats in Executive Class.
- It will be the only regular flight with fully-reclining seats between Costa Rica and the United States.
The exclusive Mint airplane from JetBlue Airways will fly between New York and Guanacaste beginning on December 15, 2018, making Liberia the first Latin American city to welcome this aircraft.
The service will be offered with JetBlue’s new A321 aircraft, with 159 seats, including, in an all-time first for this route, 16 fully reclining ‘business flat’ seats, the only regular flight between Costa Rica and the United States to offer this feature. Currently, the route is being served by an A320 aircraft with 150 seats and no executive class.
The Mint flight will maintain the A320’s itinerary, flying between John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and the Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR) in Liberia on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. This improvement is the result of the joint strategy to attract airlines to Guanacaste being implemented by the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT), CORIPORT, the Liberia airport operator, and the Guanacaste Chamber of Tourism (CATURGUA).
“Adding Mint between these cities means that travelers on these routes will finally be able to enjoy a first-class flight experience,” said Marty St. George, Executive Vice President, Commercial and Planning for JetBlue. “When Mint was launched for the first time, more than four years ago, we knew that we had created an unparalleled quality experience, but we couldn’t have imagined that Mint would be landing in more than a dozen destinations in such a short time.”
The Minister of Tourism, Maria Amalia Revelo, applauded the decision by JetBlue to send one of its Mint flights to Costa Rica, which will offer additional comfort travelers flying with the company and open new possibilities of attracting tourists to Guanacaste.
“The Mint plane cements the negotiations carried out for Costa Rica’s benefit to provide a personalized service to meet the needs of today’s passengers. We are constantly deepening out relationship with our main tourist-sending market, a potential market of 24 million people” said Revelo.
Fully reclining seats, an exclusive cocktail, a tapas menu from the Saxon + Parole restaurant in New York, fresh espresso coffee from a cappuccino machine designed especially for this US airline, Hayward and Hopper amenity kits, and artisan ice cream created in one of the 12 Mint cities: these are just a few of the unique features of this flight.
“It is a true pleasure to announce the arrival of this JetBlue flight, with its Mint layout. An Airbus A321 will fly to Liberia with an interior modified to offer a premium style that has motivated celebrities, technology executives, creative professionals and entrepreneurs to choose destinations such as ours. This flight allows us to announce that not only will the number of passengers increase for the next high season, the profile of the tourists with the opportunity to visit us from one of the best-connected cities in the world will now be widened,” noted Cesar Jaramillo, General Manager of CORIPORT, the Liberia airport authority.
CATURGUA also collaborated in the effort, which was led by the Costa Rican public and private sectors to bring this new service to the country, the first of its kind throughout Latin America. Guanacaste is taking a step forward with the connection from New York, and many other cities flying to the US hub.
In 2017, 525,661 international arrivals to Costa Rica were recorded in Liberia’s Daniel Oduber airport, 74.7% of which originated in the United States of America. From January to May of the current year, 287,355 arrivals have been recorded, according to data from the Directorate-General for Immigration and Foreign Nationals analyzed by ICT.
