Back in October, Air Transat announced a brand new route with its A321LR to Copenhagen from Montreal. Now the airline is offering another A321LR flight to Costa Rica. The airline will now fly to two destinations in Costa Rica each week until April 2020.

The route

Canadian airline Air Transat proudly announced this week that it had completed its inaugural flight between Canada and Costa Rica. The air carrier completed its first flight from Vancouver to Liberia on 18th December 2019 and will now be offering this service twice a week from now until 18th April 2020 as part of its winter schedule.

The route offers passengers the choice of two destinations. Customers will be able to fly directly to San José or continue onto Liberia with Air Transat. And the mode of transport? The lastest A321neoLR. Air Transat received its first A321neoLR at the beginning of May this year and it's used that aircraft, registered C-GOIE to fly to Copenhagen.

The latest addition to the fleet, C-GOIF, arrived at the airline on 28th June 2019 and is leased from AerCap. This will be the aircraft that flies to Costa Rica twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Why Costa Rica?

According to the airline, Costa Rica is a key holiday destination for Vancouver residents. The same is true for Costa Rican residents wanting to come to Canada. So for both countries, the new services appear to be a win-win. What's more, this new route is expected to improve the tourism trade between Canada and Costa Rica.

In Air Transat's press release on the route, the CEO at Vancouver International Airport Mr. César Jaramillo said the following:

"The new route operated by Air Transat provides direct service to and from Vancouver but also connections to the rest of Canada. This is a very important market for achieving our goal of maintaining growth in tourist arrivals from the northern part of the continent."

Costa Rica will be particularly enthusiastic about the opportunities that the new route poses. Costa Rica has almost always experienced a roaring tourism trade. Until recently. Figures indicate that whilst tourism is on the rise, the increase in arrivals has been particularly minimal in comparison to the steeped figures in the early 2000s, for example.

No doubt, this is the encouragement that the country needs to entice further tourism into Costa Rica. But that's not the only goal that Air Transat has. It wants to branch into Costa Rica in a sustainable and passenger-friendly way.

Why the Airbus A321neoLR?

Air Transat has decided to use its A321neoLR as a way of making the route less environmentally damaging. In its press release, Air Transat was keen to laud the technology of the A321neoLR highlighting its fuel-efficiency and low carbon emissions. In such a charged climate, this is an important consideration for network expansion. But it's not just the environment that Air Transat cares about. Of course, it's its customers.

Air Transat will be offering what it calls an "unparalleled inflight experience". The entire cabin has been redesigned with more personal space and the most modern entertainment systems. So not only is Air Transat upping its offering but it's doing so with the environment and its customers at the heart.

Will you be flying Air Transat's new route? Let us know in the comments.