Canadian airlines return to Costa Rica in October
Canada’s airlines will finally resume their Costa Rica flights
It has been seven long months since Canadian airlines stopped flying to Costa Rica in a Covid-related measure.
Starting in October, Canada’s airlines will finally resume their Costa Rica routes, the Tourism Board (ICT) announced.
Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing and Air Transat all plan their return to Costa Rica by December 2021.
Here are the details:
WestJet: Returns October 2 with flights between Toronto and Guanacaste, Costa Rica (LIR). The flight will be weekly on Saturdays, increasing to thrice weekly in November. Also in November, it will resume Calgary to LIR flights.
Air Canada: Returns October 9 with weekly flights between Toronto and Guanacaste, increasing to thrice weekly in November. On November 7, it will add Montreal-LIR flights on Sundays. The Toronto-San José (SJO) flights resume October 13.
Sunwing: Returns to Guanacaste on November 1 with weekly flights from Toronto and Montreal.
Air Transat: Returns to Guanacaste in mid-December with weekly flights from Montreal and Toronto.
Big boost for the high season
The flights should provide a jolt to Costa Rica’s tourism sector as the 2021-22 high season begins.
Canada is historically the second-biggest tourist market for Costa Rica, surpassed only by the United States. In 2019, some 218,932 Canadian visitors entered the country by air, representing more than 9% of all international travelers.
So far in 2021, fewer than 14,000 people have flown to Costa Rica from Canada, a 91% drop compared to 2019.
“The return of Canadian airlines occurs at an ideal time to boost visitation in the last quarter of the year and especially through the gateway to the province of Guanacaste where Canadian tourists mostly enter our country,” said Gustavo Segura, Tourism Minister.