Departure
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MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport, generally marketed as Guanacaste Airport, lies a few miles west-southwest of Liberia in Guanacaste Province on Costa Rica's Pacific side. It is a major international gateway with a single long hard-surfaced runway capable of handling wide-body jets, making it an interesting and busy destination for a simulator pilot flying into western Costa Rica.
Guanacaste Airport (ICAO MRLB, IATA LIR), formally the Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport, serves the city of Liberia and the wider tourism corridor of the Pacific coast, Nicoya Peninsula and Guanacaste mountain region. It is government-owned but operated under a long-term concession by Coriport S.A., and functions as one of Costa Rica's four international airports, with year-round scheduled and seasonal airline services from North America and Europe. For a sim pilot it offers a straightforward long-runway approach environment with tower and approach control, set against dry tropical lowland scenery.
The airport sits at coordinates 10.5934 N, -85.5445 W, at an elevation of 259 feet, about 11 kilometres west-southwest of the city of Liberia in Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica. It is a controlled aerodrome with its own approach and tower service, and lies on the Pacific side of the country away from the higher terrain of the central volcanic ranges.
The airport has a single physical runway, 07/25, orientated northeast-southwest. It is a hard-surfaced, lit runway of roughly 8,980 feet in length (8,976 feet as runway 07 and 8,988 feet as runway 25), long enough to accommodate wide-body aircraft. An instrument landing system serves runway 07.
Traffic is worked by Liberia Approach on 119.8 MHz and Liberia Tower on 118.8 MHz, with ground movements handled on 121.7 MHz. A further frequency, 126.8 MHz, is listed for Coco Radio. Runway 07 is equipped with an ILS for instrument approaches.
The idea of an airport for Guanacaste Province was conceived during the government of President Daniel Oduber Quirós between 1974 and 1978. The field was initially known as Llano Grande after the surrounding area, then renamed Aeropuerto Tomás Guardia, before finally being named in honour of Oduber Quirós himself for his work on behalf of the province. It was re-inaugurated as an international airport in October 1995, when the runway pavement was redone and new landing lights installed, and a firefighting station was added to meet international standards. Commercial interest grew slowly at first but expanded steadily through the following decade; in 2006 the tarmac parking capacity was increased and a parallel taxiway was built, and a new terminal building and counters opened in 2007. A larger, modern 23,000 square metre terminal was constructed under the Coriport concession between 2010 and its opening in January 2012, with a further expansion completed in 2017 to accommodate additional airlines. In 2021 the airport's public name was changed to Guanacaste Airport for branding purposes, although it is still widely referred to as Liberia International Airport.
Guanacaste Airport today is a large, active international airport handling both scheduled and seasonal airline traffic from North America and Europe, alongside domestic services. It is operated commercially under a long-term concession by Coriport S.A., part of a group that includes ADC&HAS Airports Worldwide, and forms part of the VINCI Airports network. The single runway and modern terminal infrastructure support regular wide-body and narrow-body jet operations, making it a well-equipped destination for airline-style arrivals and departures in a flight simulator.