Getting around SJO
Despite the name, Juan Santamaría International Airport sits in Alajuela, not San José — the postal address on the airport’s own site says so plainly. AERIS, part of Brazil’s Grupo CCR, runs it under Costa Rica’s “gestión interesada” concession model, and in 2025 the airport carried a record 6,403,220 passengers, up 3% on the year before. Almost everything international funnels through one Terminal Internacional, with a separate, much smaller Terminal Doméstica building for the two domestic carriers, Costa Rica Green Airways and SANSA. Two things trip up first-time flyers here: a US$29 exit tax that still applies unless your airline already folds it into the ticket, and a taxi rank where only orange-coloured cars are authorised to work the kerb. Pro Pilot Magazine has also called the airport’s private-aviation terminal the best in Latin America.
