Business travel to Costa Rica usually ends in San José and the Central Valley, where executives fly down to visit plants, offices and suppliers in the free zones, meet investors, or attend a board meeting. The meeting date is usually fixed, and the flights are planned around it.
Flying into San José for meetings
Business flights usually land at Juan Santamaría International (SJO), which is in Alajuela, about 10 miles west of downtown San José. The airport is open around the clock, so a late departure from the US or a late flight home after the last meeting can still be planned. If the trip is a short round trip, your advisor will price two options: the aircraft waiting in Costa Rica for you, or flying home and coming back to collect you. Between Thanksgiving and April, parking space is tight, and the operator may need to reposition the aircraft anyway.
What to send us
Give your advisor the dates, the number of travelers, the city you are leaving from, and any meeting with a fixed start time. If you tell us the address of the meeting, we will tell you which airport gets you closest to it. Because this is an international flight, every passenger needs a valid passport, and your advisor will tell you what else each person needs.
Adding a stop or a weekend
Some teams combine San José with a second stop in the region, or stay on for a weekend once the meetings are over. Tell us at the start, and we will quote the whole itinerary together. If part of the trip continues within Costa Rica, for example to Guanacaste or a beach airstrip, your advisor will tell you how that leg works for your trip.
Privacy for the people on board
We only share passenger names and itineraries with the operator and the crew assigned to your flight. The right size of aircraft depends on the headcount, the baggage and the distance from your home city, and your advisor will suggest a size once those are known. You can compare the sizes we arrange on our passenger charter page.
Vetting Behind Every Trip
Every operator, aircraft, and crew goes through our internal due diligence before we present any options. Our internal standards meet or exceed what the FAA requires:
- FAR Part 135 charter operators for traditional private aircraft, or FAR Part 121 for airliner-size and group trips (or the foreign equivalent on international legs)
- Operator subscription to Wyvern and ARGUS reviewed where the operator participates.
- Pilot experience and operator incident history reviewed before we recommend an aircraft.
- Fewer than 60 brokers worldwide hold Premium Wyvern Broker Member status, and Air Charter Advisors is one of them.
Costa Rica-Specific Patterns We Plan Around
A private flight from abroad lands first at one of Costa Rica’s international airports, most often Juan Santamaría International near San José or Guanacaste Airport in Liberia, which is the closer of the two to the Guanacaste beaches and is not open overnight. The flight on to a smaller beach or rainforest airstrip, such as Tamarindo, Nosara or Quepos, is a separate leg in a smaller aircraft, usually flown by a Costa Rican operator, and your advisor will tell you how that leg works for your trip. The busy season runs from Thanksgiving to April, when ramp space for private aircraft is limited, and the holidays, spring break and Semana Santa book up first. The dry season on the Pacific side runs from late November to April, and from May to November afternoon rain is common.
Contact
For a quote on a charter to or from Costa Rica, send the trip through our contact page or call an advisor at 1-888-987-5387. Our safety page sets out how we review operators and crews, and the aircraft gallery covers every category we arrange. We are also a member of the National Business Aviation Association.