Liberia Airport

Not Verified | Immigration systems went down and executive director of security wouldn’t answer his phone for manual overload. Made us wait in very first security line for at least an hour so far, hundreds of people. Sheer incompetence and stupidity.

Used Liberia Airport to depart on JetBlue to New York JFK. It's mid-size compared to other airports in Central America yet it seems more crowded and things are more expensive. They have the usual airport shops but on a smaller scale and less organized. Travelers are scattered all over confused with no clear indication as to where a line starts and ends. Staff make no real effort to make things more efficient. As a matter of fact they barely speak English. There is a lack of seating both in departure and arrivals areas. You have passengers standing around before boarding their flights. Bathrooms are large but still a lack of facilities for the number of passengers. Boarding announcements are done with a microphone, often times speaking on top of each other which made it hard for me to understand. Lots of confusion. Food and drinks are overpriced. It's located about 10 miles from city center and taxis overprice at $20-$35USD on average. I stayed about 2 miles away and was still charged $12USD. When considering this airport calculate prices to see if you’re actually saving money when you add in higher prices for transport, food and accomadation in the area. Would fly from here again if savings outweigh the stress.

We use this airport at least 3 times a year as we have a residence there. They have been increasing the number of flights in and out but the new terminal was built too small to handle the additional traffic. Seating often fills up and people are forced to sit on the floor and wait for a flight to depart to free up some seats. Check in is slowed by immigration and security agents checking each passenger's papers before you get to the airline counter. Security lines can back up since there is only two lines. If you didn't prepay your departure tax you can wait a long time on a line to do that at the airport as there is only a small office counter to handle this. Food is very limited and very expensive. Arrivals are the best part as the immigration and customs people are efficient and courteous. All in all the new terminal is better than the old one but it already too small and inefficient.

LIB aka Daniel Oduber International Airport is the second main airport of Costa Rica. The current terminal opened within the last year. Bright cheerful facility with windows viewing the runway etc. Security was tight - shoes belts etc to be removed. Currently 5-6 flights a day (Sunwing TACA United American Delta and Westjet). Adequate ground transport. Only issue was the food concession - US$18 for a bottle of water and a chicken wrap. Our flight was the only one Monday morning (other than a small TACA regional plane). The other 4 all leave within the 1-2pm window.