Avianca is offering on its website, flights from San José to cities such as Bogotá, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, and Madrid, among others, from next September and with reduced prices. However, given the uncertainty of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the airline also informs unlimited changes for the purchase of flights during the first two months.
If you travel before October 31st, 2020, you can make multiple changes without being charged a penalty or fare difference. If your trip is from November 1st, 2020 to June 30th, 2021, you will have one change available without penalty.
According to the page, the airline has flights available to:
Central America: Guatemala City, San Salvador
USA: Washington, Los Angeles
South America: Bogotá, Medellín, Lima, Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, Quito
Europe: London, Madrid, Barcelona
Avianca also cautions that flights are subject to changes or government restrictions. In addition to allowing the change by passengers without cost, for flights before October 31st, the cost difference will not apply if the new route has common points.
Borders will gradually open
The Government of Costa Rica plans to reopen the borders gradually this year, starting with tourists from countries without increased COVID-19 infection and taking precautions such as working with specific hotels so that they take measures to prevent transmission, according to Daniel Salas, Minister of Health.
The borders have been closed to foreign tourists since March 18th. Later, the authorities extended the closure until June 30th. This Tuesday at a press conference, the Health Minister did not want to commit to confirming a date, stating the unpredictable variables for this particular year 2020.
At the present moment, Aeris, the managing company of the Juan Santamaría International Airport, still reports that in the case of Avianca, it is “waiting for more information from that airline.”
Avianca, the second largest airline in Latin America, requested this May 9th to file for bankruptcy in the United States, to reorganize its debt “due to the unpredictable impact of the Pandemic on its business”. Latam, the largest airline of the region also filed for bankruptcy.
In April, at the peak of the Coronavirus epidemic, world traffic “hit bottom”, with a 95% drop from last year, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which forecasts a decline of more than half in revenue this year.
