International Airport Daniel Oduber Quiros (LIR) serving the city of Liberia, the capital of the province of Guanacaste, is the second-largest airport in Costa Rica and the sixth-largest in Central America.
A large part of the passenger traffic comes from foreigners visiting for tourism, so during the first year of the pandemic crisis, Liberia’s (LIR) operations were severely affected by global sanitary restrictions.
The main market for Guanacaste Airport (LIR) is North America. In 2019, 801,578 passengers were mobilized from the United States, representing 25.91% of the market share between Costa Rica and that country; while a total of 176,540 passengers were mobilized from Canada, 50.15% of the market share.
As entry restrictions to Costa Rica became more flexible, airline activity in Liberia (LIR) recovered rapidly in the last months of the first half of 2021. In June of the same year, passenger traffic surpassed that of 2019, and since May, air operations have exceeded pre-pandemic levels.
Guanacaste Airport Passenger Traffic
| Mes | Pasajeros internacionales movilizados en 2019 | Pasajeros internacionales movilizados en 2021 | Tasa de crecimiento entre 2019 y 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|
| enero | 126,651 | 35,948 | -71.6% |
| febrero | 122,068 | 28,135 | -77.0% |
| marzo | 150,678 | 47,797 | -68.3% |
| abril | 111,125 | 60,964 | -45.1% |
| mayo | 73,502 | 63,822 | -13.2% |
| junio | 87,710 | 89,795 | +2.4% |
Air operations at Guanacaste Airport
| Mes | Operaciones aéreas en 2019 | Operaciones aéreas en 2021 | Tasa de Crecimiento entre 2021 y 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|
| enero | 2,261 | 1,391 | -38.5% |
| febrero | 1,968 | 1,234 | -37.3% |
| marzo | 2,248 | 1,777 | -21.0% |
| abril | 1,891 | 1,748 | -7.6% |
| mayo | 1,431 | 1,572 | +9.9% |
| junio | 1,469 | 1,674 | +14.0% |
Nowadays, Guanacaste Airport (LIR) is connected to 17 destinations in the United States and 3 in Canada by 12 airlines. Throughout the course of 2021, new services were added, such as Orlando (MCO) with Frontier Airlines and San Francisco (SFO) by United Airlines, which already offers flights from six destinations and is the main U.S. operator.
TOP 5 of international destinations served by Guanacaste Airport in 2019
| Posición | Destinos | Pasajeros |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Houston, Estados Unidos | 299,530 |
| 2 | Atlanta, Estados Unidos | 158,537 |
| 3 | Toronto, Canadá | 130,985 |
| 4 | Miami, Estados Unidos | 128,753 |
| 5 | Los Ángeles, Estados Unidos | 103,859 |
As part of its international expansion in Austin (AUS), American Airlines launched its new service between the Texas capital and Guanacaste, while in Canada, the leisure carrier Air Transat resumed operations to Liberia (LIR) from Montreal and Toronto.
Major U.S. and Canadian airlines in Guanacaste in 2019
| Posición | Aerolínea | Pasajeros |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | United Airlines | 281,225 |
| 2 | Delta Airlines | 191,852 |
| 3 | American Airlines | 181,084 |
| 4 | Southwest Airlines | 115,812 |
| 5 | Alaska Airlines | 88,298 |
| 6 | WestJet | 66,219 |
| 7 | Air Canada | 60,651 |
| 8 | JetBlue Airways | 59,119 |
| 9 | Sunwing | 49,670 |
Between January and October 2021, Costa Rica has received 987,482 international tourists, from which 281,267 were handled by the Daniel Oduber Quirós Airport. During the past months of November and December, the cruise sector has been reactivated, which increased the arrival of foreign travelers.
U.S. airlines currently operating in Guanacaste
| Aerolínea | Destino | Frecuencias | Aeronaves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air Canada | Toronto - Pearson (YYZ) | 4 vuelos semanales | Boeing 737 MAX 8 |
| Air Canada | Montreal (YUL) | 3 vuelos semanales | Boeing 737 MAX 8 |
| Air Transat | Toronto - Pearson (YYZ) | 1 vuelo semanal | Airbus A321LR |
| Air Transat | Montreal (YUL) | 1 vuelo semanal | Airbus A321LR |
| Sunwing | Toronto - Pearson (YYZ) | 1 vuelo semanal | Boeing 737-800 NG |
| Westjet | Toronto - Pearson (YYZ) | 4 vuelos semanales | Boeing 737 MAX 8 |
| Westjet | Calgary (YYC) | 3 vuelos semanales | Boeing 737 MAX 8/ 737-800 NG |
| Alaska Airlines | Los Ángeles (LAX) | 3 vuelos semanales | Boeing 737-900ER/737-800 |
| American Airlines | Austin (AUS) | 3 vuelos semanales | Boeing 737-800 NG |
| American Airlines | Charlotte (CLT) | 1 vuelo semanal | Airbus A320 |
| American Airlines | Chicago O' Hare (ORD) | 1 vuelo semanal | Boeing 737-800 NG |
| American Airlines | Dallas / Fort Worth (DFW) | 1 vuelo semanal | Boeing 737-800 NG |
| American Airlines | Miami (MIA) | 21 vuelos semanales | Boeing 737 MAX 8/737-800 NG |
| American Airlines | Nueva York (JFK) | 1 vuelo semanal | Boeing 737-800 NG |
| Delta Airlines | Atlanta (ATL) | 8 vuelos semanales | Boeing 737-900ER |
| Delta Airlines | Los Ángeles (LAX) | 1 vuelo semanal | Boeing 737-900ER |
| Delta Airlines | Minneapolis (MSP) | 4 vuelos semanales | Boeing 737-900ER |
| Frontier Airlines | Orlando (MCO) | 2 vuelos semanales | Airbus A320NEO |
| JetBlue Airways | Los Ángeles (LAX) | 2 vuelos semanales | Airbus A320 |
| JetBlue Airways | Nueva York (JFK) | 6 vuelos semanales | Airbus A321 |
| JetBlue Airways | Boston (BOS) | 2 vuelos semanales | Airbus A320/A321 |
| Southwest Airlines | Denver (DEN) | 1 vuelo semanal | Boeing 737-800 NG |
| Southwest Airlines | Houston - Hobby (HOU) | 7 vuelos semanales | Boeing 737-700 |
| Southwest Airlines | Baltimore (BWI) | 1 vuelo semanal | Boeing 737-700 |
| Sun Country Airlines | Minneapolis (MSP) | 2 vuelos semanales | Boeing 737-900ER |
| United Airlines | Houston - Intercontinental (IAH) | 14 vuelos semanales | Boeing 737-800 NG |
| United Airlines | Chicago O' Hare (ORD) | 2 vuelos semanales | Boeing 737-800 NG |
| United Airlines | Denver (DEN) | 2 vuelos semanales | Boeing 737-800 NG |
| United Airlines | Los Ángeles (LAX) | 1 vuelo semanal | Boeing 737-900ER |
| United Airlines | Newark (EWR) | 2 vuelos semanales | Boeing 737-900ER |
| United Airlines | San Francisco (SFO) | 1 vuelo semanal | Boeing 737-800 NG |
Regarding the long-haul market, Guanacaste Airport has received the arrival of more airlines than in 2019. KLM offered a seasonal flight from Amsterdam (AMS) via San Jose (SJO), TUI resumed operations from London Gatwick (LGW) after the UK removed Costa Rica from its red list, and for the first time, Liberia (LIR) has a direct connection with Switzerland thanks to the arrival of Edelweiss from Zurich (ZRH) triangulating with the Costa Rican capital.
Statistics were obtained from the General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics of Costa Rica (DGAC) and the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT).
