Juan Santamaría International Airport

Juan Santamaría International Airport (Spanish: Aeropuerto Internacional Juan Santamaría) (IATA: SJO, ICAO: MROC) is the primary airport serving San José, the capital of Costa Rica. 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, transiting more than 5 million passengers per year before COVID.
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. The government secured funding 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 and 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, and there is a special airport taxi service that is licensed and employs orange taxis. Although the rail line linking downtown Alajuela with San José's Atlantic Station passes in close proximity to the airport, it does not serve the airport, and there is no rail service of any kind to the airport.
The airport's sole runway allows operations of 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 U.S. 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, and which operates from their base at Madrid airport using Airbus A330-200 and an 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 several years of legal challenges and contract negotiations, in May 2001, Alterra Partners received a 20-year concession and started managing the facilities. It was also expected that the company would finish the necessary expansion and construction of new facilities; in March 2002, however, Alterra announced it would cease any further construction due to disagreements over financing and airport use fee billing with the government. The dispute lasted several 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)—a 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:
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 2023. Traffic movements and freight (in metric tons) also reached a peak in 2023.