Guanacaste Airport, a member of VINCI Airports, together with the Swiss airline Edelweiss Air announce an increase in operating frequencies. The news is made known thanks to the work for the operational reinforcement of the 2022-2023 high season.
As of November 2nd, Edelweiss will operate two triangulated flights weekly, via San Jose, on Wednesdays and Sundays, in an Airbus A340-300 that has a capacity of 334 seats.
The Schedule goes as following:
Wednesday:
04:45 pm Arrival in Guanacaste (LIR)
05:55 pm Depart for Zurich (ZRH)
Sunday:
09:15 pm Arrival in Guanacaste (LIR)
10:25 p.m. Depart for Zurich (ZRH)
A potential market
Edelweiss landed for the first time in Guanacaste on Sunday, November 28, 2021. According to data from the Costa Rican Tourism Institute, Switzerland represented the seventh largest source market for tourists from Europe prior to the start of the pandemic.
Positioning of Guanacaste in Europe
“This increase in frequency of the Edelweiss airline shows us how not only the growth of the Costa Rica destination continues, but also the positioning of Guanacaste in Europe. The success of the Zurich-Guanacaste route shows the strength of said province in terms of national tourism. It is our desire -and we are constantly working on this-, to achieve more connections between Europe and the Daniel Oduber Airport”, said Hermes Navarro, head of investment attraction at the ICT.
Likewise, based on the most recent characterization of said market and its travelers, developed by the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (2020), their average stay exceeds 18 nights and they enjoy varied activities such as enjoying the sun and the beach in a (87 %), hiking trails (74%), observing flora and fauna (66%), enjoying local cuisine (67%), visiting volcanoes (55%), surfing (40% ) and live the experience of a canopy (33%)
“This is the fruit of the constant interdisciplinary work of our Guanacaste Airport team, VINCI Airports and the support from the ICT. We receive this news with great joy. 2022 has been a very positive year, of clear economic recovery and historic milestones for the airport. We have high expectations for behavior at the beginning and end of the year. The increase in frequency of Edelweiss is added to the announcement of the new Frontier route from Atlanta, starting December 17,” said César Jaramillo, general manager of Guanacaste Airport.
For his part, Bern Bauer, CEO of Edelweiss, stated that “the route to Liberia (Guanacaste) has developed excellently since our first flight in November 2021. Costa Rica is a very popular holiday destination among the Swiss and we are seeing an increase in demand. The second weekly flight in combination with San José opens up even more flexible options for our guests to travel to Costa Rica.”
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