Costa Rica Travel & Tourism – A new flight to Costa Rica will be initiated next month.

The Venezuelan airline, Albatros Airlines, will begin on May 2 flights between San Jose and Caracas, Venezuela, confirms Costa Rica’s tourism board, the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT).

Albatros made the announcement last week in Venezuela and is expected to do the same in Costa Rica on Wednesday.

The flights will be on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, leaving the Simón Bolívar de Maiquetía (CCS) airport at 7:00am and arriving at the Juan Santamaria (SJO) – San Jose airport – at 10am. The flight to Caracas leaves an hour later.

The flights have a maximum of 112 passengers, 12 in first class.

Orlando Padilla, marketing director of Albatros Airlines told LaPatilla.com that Costa Rica is “an important destination”.

Padilla added that the growth of Venezuelan nationals in Costa Rica, mainly in Escazu and San Jose, and business travel was the motivation for the service.

Albatros will compete against Avianca that began service to Venezuela some two years ago.

Last year, a total of 34.745 Venezuelans visited Costa Rica, 23.565 of which arrived by air.

Albatros Airlines is a private commercial Venezuelan airline, authorized to conduct flight operations for transporting passengers, cargo and mail since May 13, 2010.

From qCostaRica, Edited by Dan Stevens