American Airlines will make Costa Rica its first Central
American destination from New York with the launch of service between JFK and
San Jose in November.
American will further beef up its Caribbean and Latin
American network from JFK with the launch of flights to Montego Bay, Jamaica;
Georgetown, Guyana; and Liberia, Costa Rica during the winter flying season.
"We've been taking a hard look at New York overall just
to better understand where the opportunities are," said Jim Carter,
American's head of sales in the Northeast. "In New York City, we have a
very good business destination portfolio. It became very apparent to us that we
probably had some opportunities on the leisure side, as well."
American will fly New York-San Jose and New York-Montego Bay
daily beginning Nov. 21. On the San Jose route, American will be the lone
carrier, according to the website Flight Connections, although it will compete
with United service from Newark. American will enter a more crowded New York-Montego
Bay market, competing against JetBlue, Delta and Caribbean Airlines. American
will also compete against Caribbean Airlines on daily Georgetown service, which
launches in December.
American will operate New York-Liberia weekly, competing
against JetBlue, which operates the route five times per week.
Along with those new routes, American said that it
will expand its daily seasonal JFK-Antigua service to a year-round and convert
its weekly summer route between New York LaGuardia and Aruba to year-round.
American also serves Punta Cana and St. Thomas from New York.
American's service from JFK to St. Kitts ends July 6.