Southwest Plans to Add Costa Rica’s Capital San Jose to Network

Southwest Airlines is planning to launch daily non-stop service between Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and Costa Rica’s capital San Jose on March 7.

Should Southwest Airlines receive the requisite approval from the government of Costa Rica to begin operating the service, San Jose would become the carrier’s first destination in Central America.

Southwest Airlines’ new livery includes a heart painted on the bottom of the aircraft’s fuselage

The airline has begun selling tickets on southwest.com for its planned new Baltimore/Washington-San Jose service for flights from March 7 through April 6, 2015.

According to Southwest Airlines, its planned new service between Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (IATA code BWI) and San Jose’s Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO) would facilitate connecting service between 17 additional cities in the U.S. and Costa Rica’s capital.

Southwest Airlines’ planned schedule for its Baltimore/Washington-San Jose service calls for its flight to depart BWI at 8:40 a.m. daily from March 7 and arrive at SJO at 11:45 a.m. local time (On March 7, only, the flight would land at 12:45 p.m. local time, because Costa Rica does not switch to Daylight Saving Time over the winter period.)

Southwest Airlines’ new livery is remarkably like that which some electric commuter trains of the Stagecoach-owned South West Trains railway company sport. The trains operate on routes between central London and suburbs in the southern and western parts of Greater London. Despite the similarity of the names and liveries, there are no known ownership ties between the airline and the rail company

In the other direction, Southwest’s return flight would leave SJO at 12:40 p.m. (or at 1:40 p.m., only on March 7) and touch down at BWI at 7:35 p.m. local time.

On July 1, Southwest launched international service to three Caribbean destinations and by the end of this year the carrier will fly between the U.S. and eight international destinations in five countries.

Southwest’s planned first-ever non-stop service between Baltimore/Washington and San Jose, Costa Rica would add to the Southwest route map a sixth country outside the U.S., and the airline’s 94th destination.