The Technical Council of Civil Aviation approved the request of the Emirates Airlines and JetBlue Airways airlines, for the operation of flights under the figure of shared-code between San José and Dubai, via points in the United States.
Emirates is one of the most sophisticated airlines in the world, flying with its fleet of 244 aircraft, all Airbus 380 or Boeing 777-300, to more than 160 countries directly or in shared-flight. The company uses the Dubai International Airport as a base of operations.
This airport, through which 78 million people traveled during the previous year, will provide Costa Rica with a direct connection from Dubai to the markets and destinations of the Middle and the Far East and Africa. It will also open an important niche for tourism attraction and investments for the country.
The UAE has shown interest in Costa Rica. Since 2010, an air services agreement was negotiated and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed that reflected transcendental aspects that today are specified with the operation of the shared code. The code-sharing figure consists of a cooperation agreement where one airline associates itself with another in order to reach other destinations to which it does not have direct access at any given moment.
In this case, Emirates Airlines has 5 weekly flights from Dubai to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 5 weekly flights from Dubai to Orlando, Florida and 1 daily flight from Dubai to JFK Airport, in New York. In all cases, these flights would connect with those of JetBlue from Fort Lauderdale and Orlando to San José and from New York to Liberia.
The shared code requested by the companies to the General Directorate of Civil Aviation includes all JetBlue destinations to Costa Rica, corresponding to the Orlando-San Jose-Orlando, New York-Liberia-New York and Fort Lauderdale-San José routes. Fort Lauderdale.
In the case of the New York-Liberia flight, the Government negotiated the start of JetBlue’s MINT service as of December 15th, 2018, with an A321 airplane, which has 159 seats, including, for the first time on this route, 16 in Business class type bed (business flat).
The Vice President and Chancellor of the Republic, Epsy Campbell, expressed her satisfaction with the news. “I am particularly pleased to know that the work developed by the Costa Rican Embassy in the United Arab Emirates, our officials in the Foreign Ministry and the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) has paid off. We show that there is an inter-institutional capacity to work successfully for the benefit of the country. Economic diplomacy is an important development tool for the progress of our society”, she said.
For her part, the Minister of Tourism, Maria Amalia Revelo, stressed that “this is the first step of a long road that awaits us for the opening of the Middle East market and destinations beyond. We are hopeful that in the medium term we will begin to venture into the different markets with actions that are effective and that promote the trips of both the Middle East and of already identified destinations of connection such as India, South Africa, Australia and some parts of Asia”, said Emirates Holidays, the tourism company part of the Emirates group, will promote Costa Rica as a destination in the Americas.
Costa Rica and the United Arab Emirates have reciprocal embassies in San José and Abu Dhabi since 2017 and 2018, respectively. Citizens of both countries do not take a visa to travel between both States, which have signed 11 international instruments in a year. Dubai will host the next universal exhibition, EXPO 2020 Dubai, which will take place from October 2020 to April 2021.
