Central America continues to thrive despite the global crisis, with increasing visitor figures and more flight connections from Europe.

Air Berlin, Iberia and KLM have all launched new services or increased frequencies in recent weeks.

Firstly, Air Berlin launched a new fortnightly flight from Dusseldorf to Liberia in Costa Rica earlier this week.

Germany’s second largest carrier will use an Airbus A330-200 with 303 seats. 

Besides this, other direct connections to Costa Rica from Europe include Iberia’s daily flights to San Jose from Madrid, and flights from Frankfurt on Mondays and Thursdays with Condor.

Iberia will also increase the frequency of its flights from Madrid to Panama from January 2012, adding 25,000 more seats per year. 

Flights will now depart on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

KLM has also increased the number of weekly flights from Amsterdam to Panama from five to seven, starting this month. 

In Central America, the recent merger of TACA-Avianca means the carrier now offers connections to all destinations within the region, with increased frequencies. 

Between January and September 2011, TACA-Avianca carried 15,244,635 passengers on both domestic and international routes, 19.1 per cent more than in the same period the previous year, with a 77 per cent occupancy level.

The number of European visitors to Central America grew by 8.9 per cent in the first six months of 2011, compared to the same period last year, with a total of 413,664 tourists. 

While Spain remains the main market for Central America with 63,297 visitors, the biggest increase was in the number of Germans (up by 15.9 per cent to 59,831) and British visitors (up by 13.7 per cent to 54,851).