From rags to riches

In less than three decades, Costa Rica’s Liberia International Airport has gone from little-known rural runway to the country’s second airport. Sebastian Schmitz explains how

An American Airlines Airbus A319-115, N9006 (c/n 5761), during a short layover on the popular Liberia-Miami route
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Airport Statistics

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Visitors headed for Costa Rica tend to think of San José’s Juan Santamaría International Airport as the country´s gateway, and San José is indeed where most flights from Europe landed in pre-pandemic times. Recent years, however – before COVID-19 hit global aviation – have seen the emergence of a busy secondary airport for the Central American country. In Guanacaste Province in Costa Rica’s sparsely populated west, Liberia International Airport offers clear benefits to airlines and passengers alike

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