Southwest Airlines has published its flight schedule through April 10th, 2023, which includes two new routes for spring 2023. The airline will launch flights from Denver International Airport in Colorado to San Jose, Costa Rica, on Saturdays beginning on March 11th, 2023.
Next spring will introduce a Saturday-only seasonal route from San Diego, California, to Eugene, Oregon. The service will also begin in March to allow customers to plan for spring break. Vice President of Network Planning for Southwest Airlines, Adam Decaire, expressed his excitement about the new flight options for the spring:
“We continue strengthening our network across North America with some of our largest schedules ever for our Denver and Las Vegas Customers, and we’re thrilled to give everyone an ability to book now and plan their spring vacations early.”
“With dozens of seasonal routes bolstered with two new and never-before-served routes, a destination for everyone is available on Southwest.com for our schedule now extended out into early April 2023.”
Exceptional growth from Denver.
Southwest is adding seasonal service on Saturdays between Denver and Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO), serving San Jose, Costa Rica, beginning March 11th, 2023. The flights will depart Denver at 7:10 am and arrive in the Costa Rican capital at 1:10 pm. After a brief turnaround of less than half an hour, the aircraft will return to Denver, arriving at approximately 6:10 pm the same evening. The flights are scheduled on the airline's Boeing 737 MAX 8, which seats 175 passengers.
The weekly service will supplement an existing weekly service between Denver and Guanacaste Airport (LIR) in Liberia, Costa Rica. With the addition of the new San Jose flights, subject to government approval, Southwest will fly its largest-ever March schedule from Denver. For March 2023, the airport will see up to 270 departures a day, a 10% increase from the preceding month.
In addition to Costa Rica, the airline also serves Belize and four destinations in Mexico: Cancun, Cozumel, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas/Los Cabos internationally from Denver.
Doubling up in Liberia
The airline is also increasing its services to Liberia on the country's northwestern coast. A second weekly flight will depart on Sundays from Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) to supplement an existing seasonal Saturday Service.
Southwest also flies daily to Guanacaste Airport (LIR) from William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) in Houston, Texas. The Costa Rican airport saw significant growth over the last year and has regained service to all the routes served before the pandemic and recently celebrated its ten millionth passenger. The nation's Minister of Tourism, William Rodríguez, highlighted the news as a boost to meeting tourism objectives:
“We are on the right path, our mission as an Institution is to reach the numbers of 2019 in 2023 and we will only achieve that if the airlines enable more seats to Costa Rica and if we diversify the offer of products and services.
The news that Southwest doubles its offer to Costa Rica, then it is music to our ears and to the country in general.”
According to government data, over 800,000 American tourists arrived in the nation by air from January to July of this year.
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Seasonal services to Eugene
Southwest Airlines also announced the addition of a new route between San Diego, California, and Eugene, Oregon, beginning on March 11th, 2023. The flights will be operated on one of Southwest's Boeing 737-700s, and the route is expected to remain seasonal. The city pair currently faces no direct competition, with the closest airport with direct connections being over 100 miles away in Portland.
Source: The Costa Rica News