By Wendy Anders

Air Canada last Thursday added a new seasonal route to its schedule of flights to and from Costa Rica.

The direct Montreal-San José flight will operate during Montreal’s winter with two weekly flights on a Boeing 767-300ER with a capacity of 282 passengers, reported the airline in a press statement.

Air Canada also operates Toronto-San José, Toronto-Liberia, and Montreal-Liberia flights.

Mauricio Ventura, Costa Rica’s Minister of Tourism, said the new flight facilitates connections with other eastern Canadian cities including Quebec, Ottawa, Toronto, Newfoundland, Labrador, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.

Last year 157,614 Canadians visited Costa Rica by air, which is the preferred mode of entry for 90 percent of Canadian tourists.

Data collected by the Costa Rica tourist board shows that more than a third of Canadians are repeat visitors, and the average stay is two weeks.

Air Canada is Canada’s largest domestic and international airline, with flights to more than 200 airports on six continents. It is one of the top 20 airlines in the world, and in 2015 transported more than 41 million passengers. Air Canada is the only international network carrier in North America to receive a Four-Star ranking according to independent U.K. research firm Skytrax.

The airline offers a regular passenger service directly to 63 cities in Canada, 52 in the United States and 86 in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America.

This new flight will leave Montreal at 7:40 a.m. on Thursdays and Sundays, arriving in San José at 12:14 p.m. Flights will leave San José’s Juan Santamaría Airport the same days at 1:35 p.m., arriving in Montreal at 7:47 p.m.. The service will end on April 16, 2017.