Juan Santamaría International Airport

Juan Santamaría International Airport is the largest and busiest airport in Costa Rica and the principal international gateway to Central America's most-visited tourist destination, serving the San José metropolitan area and drawing catchment from across the populous Central Valley, where roughly 75% of Costa Rica's 5.2M residents live. Located 12 mi (20 km) northwest of downtown San José at 3,021 ft (921 m) elevation in the province of Alajuela, SJO handles 95 routes across 51 destinations through 35 airlines. The airport is named for Costa Rica's 1856 national hero Juan Santamaría, a young drummer who died setting fire to William Walker's filibuster headquarters at the Second Battle of Rivas. SJO serves as the primary hub for Avianca Costa Rica (formerly LACSA), a secondary hub and focus city for Copa Airlines (whose Panama City hub drives heavy connecting traffic), and a major operating base for Volaris Costa Rica and Arajet. U.S. carriers provide the backbone of long-haul connectivity: American (Dallas, Miami, Charlotte, Philadelphia), Delta (Atlanta, New York–JFK, Minneapolis, Los Angeles), United (Houston, Newark, Chicago, Washington–Dulles, Denver), JetBlue (New York, Boston, Orlando), Southwest, Spirit, Frontier, Alaska, Sun Country, and Air Canada. European service includes Iberia, Air France, KLM, Lufthansa, British Airways (seasonal), Edelweiss, Condor, and Iberojet. Latin American carriers Aeroméxico, Copa, LATAM, Avianca, GOL, and Wingo provide regional coverage. The airfield operates a single asphalt runway — 07/25 at 9,882 ft (3,012 m) — with length driven substantially by the 3,021 ft elevation performance penalty. A single passenger terminal handles all commercial traffic, organized into international and domestic sections. SJO is operated by Aeris Holding Costa Rica, a concessionaire led by Canadian and German airport operators under a long-running public-private partnership that has driven terminal expansion, apron growth, and airside reconfiguration since 2001. The airport is the principal pilgrimage-season gateway for the August 2 celebration at the Basílica de Los Ángeles in Cartago and handles heavy December–April tourism traffic supplemented by year-round business travel to the Central Valley's substantial medical-devices and services-outsourcing sectors.