Did you know? Costa Rica's first jet landed in 1962 at El Coco, today's Juan Santamaría airport

The first jet aircraft to land in Costa Rica was a Pan American DC-8 named "Midnight Sun", which touched down on 4 March 1962 at El Coco, the airport now known as Juan Santamaría International, according to the aviation history published by Costa Rica's Dirección General de Aviación Civil (DGAC).

It arrived only four years after the El Coco terminal opened in 1958. The country's earlier airports tell the rest of the story: La Lindora, in Santa Ana, was inaugurated on 12 April 1931 as Costa Rica's first international airport, and La Sabana International Airport was officially inaugurated on 7 April 1940. Even earlier, on 29 December 1928, a Pan American Sikorsky had landed at La Sabana on the first commercial passenger flight.

The national airline followed the same path into the jet age. LACSA, created in 1945, received its first four-engine aircraft, a DC-6 named "San José", in November 1960, and its first jet, a BAC 1-11 named "El Tico", arrived at El Coco on 15 April 1967. La Sabana stopped serving large commercial traffic after the Tobías Bolaños airport near Pavas was inaugurated on 21 December 1975.

The DGAC adds that a Concorde visited Juan Santamaría in January 1999, closing what it calls an 87-year cycle since the first flight in Costa Rica in 1912. The country now has about 200 airports and airfields of different kinds, so travellers should always check which one their flight uses.