Juan Santamaría International Airport

The airport is located in Alajuela Province, 20 kilometres (12 mi; 11 nmi) northwest of downtown San José. It is named after Costa Rica's national hero, Juan Santamaría, a drummer boy who died in 1856 defending his country against forces led by William Walker, an American filibuster. It is the biggest and busiest airport in Costa Rica and second in Central America with more than 5 million passengers per year before COVID

Juan Santamaría International Airport Aeropuerto Internacional Juan Santamaría
IATA: SJO ICAO: MROC
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Government of Costa Rica
Operator	Aeris Holdings Costa Rica under CCR S.A.
Serves	San José, Costa Rica
Location	Alajuela Province, Costa Rica
Opened	May 2, 1958; 65 years ago (1958-05-02)
Hub for	Avianca Costa Rica Costa Rica Green Airways Sansa Airlines
Focus city for	Avianca El Salvador Copa Airlines
Operating base for	Volaris Costa Rica
Elevation AMSL	921 m / 3,022 ft
Coordinates	9°59′38″N 84°12′32″W / 9.99389°N 84.20889°W / 9.99389; -84.20889
Website	www.sjoairport.com
Map
SJO Location in Costa Rica
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 07/25 3,012 9,882 Asphalt
Statistics (2022)
Passengers 5,010,949 Passenger change 21–22 63.6% Aircraft movements 86,762 Movements change 21–22 33.1%
Source: Costa Rican AIP, DGAC

The airport is a hub for Avianca Costa Rica, Costa Rica Green Airways, Sansa Airlines, and Volaris Costa Rica and a focus city for Avianca El Salvador and Copa Airlines. It was the country's only international gateway for many years, before the opening of the international airport in Liberia, Guanacaste. Both airports have direct flights to North and Central America and Europe, but Juan Santamaría International Airport also serves cities in South America and the Caribbean.

Juan Santamaría International Airport was once the busiest airport in Central America, but is currently second after Tocumen International Airport in Panama. In 2022, Juan Santamaría International Airport received 5 million passengers (international and domestic).

The airport was built to replace the previous one in downtown San Jose where Parque La Sabana is located today. Funding was secured by the government in 1951 and construction proceeded slowly until the airport was officially inaugurated on May 2, 1958. It was initially called "Aeropuerto Internacional el Coco" after its location of the same name in the province of Alajuela. It was later renamed in honor of Juan Santamaría. In 1961, funding was secured to build the highway connecting the airport to downtown San José.

The road access to the airport is on an exit at Route 1, and near the exit to Alajuela. There is a parking area with surcharge, plus a bus stop with plenty of services to San Jose downtown (with no exact schedule but with 24-hour bus service and approximately one service every 10 minutes during working hours). Licensed taxis are available in the airport and will generally accept both colónes and U.S. dollars, but not other currencies. Costa Rican taxis are red with yellow triangles on the doors, ubiquitous all over the country, plus there is a special airport taxi service that is licensed and employs orange taxis. While the rail line linking downtown Alajuela with San José's Atlantic Station passes in close proximity to the airport, there is no station serving the airport and no rail service of any kind to the airport.

 

The airport's sole runway allows operations of large wide-body aircraft. Currently, some scheduled flights are operated with Airbus A330, A340 and A350, and Boeing 747, 767, 777 and 787, for both passengers and freight. A Concorde landed in 1999 for that year's airshow. Previously, the airport had a small hangar, called the "NASA" hangar, to house research aircraft, like the Martin B-57 Canberra high-altitude aircraft, that were being operated in Costa Rica. After that mission was completed, the hangar was removed.

 

Internationally, the largest operator in the airport is Avianca and all their branches, followed by Copa Airlines which uses the Main Terminal (M). Domestically the largest airline is Sansa Airlines, and their flights depart from the Domestic Terminal (D). The largest US airlines at the airport by number of destinations served all year long are jetBlue and United Airlines, and the largest European airline at the airport is Iberia which is the only European airline that flies daily all year long between Europe and San José from their base at Madrid airport using an Airbus A330-200 combined with the Airbus A350-900XWB (especially in European winter season).

No major changes were made to the terminal until November 1997 when the government issued a decree requesting participation of private companies to manage the operations of the airport. After a few years of legal challenges and contract negotiations, Alterra Partners was given a 20-year concession and started managing the facilities in May 2001. It was also expected that the company would finish the necessary expansion and construction of new facilities; however, in March 2002, Alterra announced it would cease any further construction due to disagreements over financing and airport use fee billing with the government. The dispute was extended for a few years and problems started at the terminal; in 2005, the International Civil Aviation Organization pointed out that the airport did not comply with safety regulations. In July 2009, Alterra yielded the contract to a consortium composed of Houston-based Canadian-American company ADC & HAS and the Brazilian company, Andrade Gutierrez Concessoes (AGC)—subsidiary of the conglomerate Andrade Gutierrez. In December 2009, Alterra Partners changed its name to AERIS Holdings, S.A. In November 2010, Aeris announced it had finished the expansion and construction of new facilities with the installation of the 9th boarding bridge.

The airport houses three business lounges for both special card holders and business class travellers; Avianca Club, Copa Club and VIP Lounge (for BAC Credomatic customers).

The following airlines have scheduled direct services to and/or from Juan Santamaría International Airport:

Passenger

 

 

 

Notes

• ^a Volaris Costa Rica flies to Mexico City non-stop but also has flights via Guatemala City. They have fifth freedom rights to transport passengers solely between Guatemala City and Mexico City.
• ^b Volaris Costa Rica flies to New York–JFK via San Salvador. They have fifth freedom rights to transport passengers solely between San Salvador and New York.

Cargo

Former destinations and/or airlines

These airlines used to operate at Juan Santamaría Airport; however, they either do not exist anymore, have discontinued their services to the airport, have canceled previously served destinations or were merged into a different airline.

Juan Santamaria International Airport is the largest and busiest airport in Costa Rica, having experienced a constant increase in traffic since its opening in 1958, boosted by the growing flow of tourists. The airport reached more than one million passengers per year for the first time in 1991 and having a record number of passengers in 2019. Traffic movements reached its highest number in 2017, while freight (in metric tons) reached a peak in 2022, with 101,120 tons.

	Number of passengers	Percentage change	Number of movements	Freight (tonnes)
1960	209,624	–	–	–
1965	216,162	09.6%	14,827	9,839
1970	381,278	016.3%	28,673	19,808
1975	759,098	018.1%	33,417	21,727
1980	658,154	02.5%	33,013	21,712
1985	617,474	00.3%	24,990	27,282
1990	987,870	010.8%	35,569	72,419
1995	1,839,175	03.8%	52,402	88,249
2000	2,160,869	04.3%	72,428	77,137
2005	3,243,440	012.2%	72,131	64,338
2010	4,257,606	05.0%	87,384	85,164
2011	3,857,588	09.4%	72,674	98,609
2012	3,872,467	00.4%	67,002	94,775
2013	3,797,616	01.9%	62,598	85,022
2014	3,917,573	03.2%	73,307	86,741
2015	4,494,875	014.7%	82,835	75,329
2016	4,595,355	02.2%	85,731	73,633
2017	5,092,060	010.8%	90,044	82,712
2018	5,230,382	02.7%	78,897	91,152
2019	5,541,577	05.9%	84,790	92,072
2020	1,648,408	070.3%	37,262	75,607
2021	3,063,086	085.8%	65,162	94,002
2022	5,010,949	063.6%	86,762	101,120
Source: Directorate General of Civil Aviation of Costa Rica

Top international destinations

Busiest international routes to and from SJO (Jan. 2018 – Dec. 2018)

	Airport	Arrivals	Departures	Total	2018-2019	Carriers
1	Panama City1	405,608	415,602	821,210	00.62%	Air Panama, Avianca, Copa
2	Houston2	211,017	204,318	415,335	08.89%	Southwest, United
3	Mexico City, Mexico	189,358	191,635	380,993	016.67%	Aeroméxico, Interjet, Volaris
4	Fort Lauderdale	188,381	188,457	376,838	017.51%	Jetblue, Southwest, Spirit
5	San Salvador	182,658	185,483	368,141	01.68%	Avianca, Volaris
6	Miami	146,658	149,607	296,265	01.00%	American, Avianca, Frontier
7	Atlanta	127,362	128,674	256,036	07.45%	Delta
8	Guatemala City	126,354	123,937	250,291	017.06%	Avianca, Copa, Volaris
9	Bogotá	109,184	108,389	217,573	06.48%	Avianca, Wingo
10	Madrid	96,489	101,827	198,316	02.03%	Iberia
11	Los Angeles	90,317	86,237	176,554	035.57%	Alaska, Delta
12	Newark	91,460	83,374	174,834	02.16%	United
13	Lima	68,203	72,427	140,630	076.71%	LATAM, Avianca
14	Orlando	53,046	54,702	107,748	05.96%	Jetblue, Spirit, Frontier
15	Dallas/Fort Worth	51,585	53,735	105,320	02.90%	American
16	Toronto–Pearson	51,136	46,897	98,033	08.79%	Air Canada, Air Transat, WestJet
17	Paris–Charles de Gaulle	47,348	46,619	93,967	0290.75%	Air France
18	Managua	44,560	46,125	90,685	041.84%	Copa
19	Frankfurt	40,980	42,908	83,8883	0103.89%	Lufthansa, Condor
20	Cancún	32,461	33,403	65,864	035.78%	Viva Aerobus, Volaris
21	Zürich	31,959	32,244	64,203	075.42%	Edelweiss
22	London–Gatwick	26,996	27,620	54,616	00.76%	British Airways
23	Charlotte	27,183	24,233	51,416	02.00%	American
24	Tegucigalpa	26,578	19,771	46,349	00.09%	Avianca, Copa
25	Amsterdam	16,756	15,166	31,922	0554.01%	KLM
Source: Directorate General of Civil Aviation. Air Transportation Statistical Yearbook (Years 2017, and 2018). Notes: ^1 Avianca and Copa fly to Panama City-Tocumen Airport, and Air Panama flies to Panama City-Albrook Airport. The data here is for traffic between SJO and all airports in Panama City. ^2 United and Spirit fly to Houston-Intercontinental Airport, and Southwest flies to Houston-Hobby Airport. The data here is for traffic between SJO and all airports in Houston. ^3 Includes passengers to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The German airline Condor flies between San José and Frankfurt making a stopover in Santo Domingo, and the airline has the right to transport passengers between SJO and SDQ and vice versa only. However, the data about passengers flying to and arriving from Santo Domingo only are not defined by the DGAC, and not comparable yearly. Also, Lufthansa started to fly directly from FRA to SJO and return on March 29, 2018.

• On August 20, 1977, a Monarch Aviation Convair CV-880 struck trees and crashed 2.5 km (1.6 mi) southeast of SJO shortly after takeoff probably because the aircraft was overweight with cargo. All 3 occupants died.
• On May 23, 1988, a leased Boeing 727-100 (TI-LRC) operating the route San Jose-Managua-Miami, collided with a fence at the end of the runway in the Juan Santamaria International Airport, crashed at a nearby field next to a highway, and caught fire. The excess of weight in the front part of the airplane was the cause of the accident. There were no fatalities out of the 23 occupants.
• On January 16, 1990, SANSA Flight 32 crashed into the Cerro Cedral, a mountain, shortly after takeoff from Juan Santamaria International Airport. All 20 passengers and 3 crew on board perished in the crash.
• On September 3, 2007, a North American Rockwell Sabreliner 70 registration N726JR aborted the takeoff from runway 07. The airplane ran off the right side of the runway into the grass. The landing gear collapsed as the plane skidded and turned 180 degrees. The aircraft was written off.
• On April 7, 2022, DHL Aero Expreso Flight 7216, a Boeing 757-27A operated by DHL Aviation en route to Guatemala City skidded off the runway while performing an emergency landing due to a hydraulic problem. The aircraft was written off because the tail section broke off; however, there was no fire or injuries reported.

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