and adventure

QCOSTARICA (4/26/2023) – Private flights from Japan, Australia and New Zealand have recently arrived in Costa Rica, confirming that the country gaining ground on the radar of the business aviation world and is becoming more accessible to the arrival of foreigners.

These are tourists who arrive with the idea of getting to know the Costa Rican paradise that is promoted internationally or come on business, in both cases, they represent a tourist segment to which the country has turned its gaze in recent years: visitors with great purchasing power.

The numbers support this growth in arrivals of international private flights, better known as non-scheduled. Both the Juan Santamaría (SJO) in San Jose and Daniel Oduber (LIR) in Guanacaste, airports have seen an increase in these types of flights during the last two years, after the pandemic, suggesting continued growth.

Arriving on a private flight, in relation to tourists who take commercial flights, the logistics of the aircraft is the key factor.

Hiring a ground service assistance company or “Ground Handler” is the most important step for the arrival in the country, since these companies coordinate different logistics services.

“The management is very automated or normal in that sense, so that the interested party coordinates through a Costa Rican ground service company that provides that support, requests a space at the airport, for such a date, at such a time, indicates how long you are going to stay in the country and receives the response from the airport operator, a go-ahead so to speak, you have a spot at the airport,” explained Fernando Naranjo, general director of Aviación Civil, Costa Rica’s Civil Aviation.

Pre-takeoff support services, flight support, ground support, and passenger arrangements are part of the services offered by ground assistance and facilitate everything from hotel reservations and ground transportation to special meals for these travelers, depending on the contracted company.