AA plans new Caribbean and Latin America routes from New York

American Airlines will make Costa Rica its first Central American destination from New York with the launch of service between JFK and San Jose in November.

American will further beef up its Caribbean and Latin American network from JFK with the launch of flights to Montego Bay, Jamaica; Georgetown, Guyana; and Liberia, Costa Rica during the winter flying season.

"We've been taking a hard look at New York overall just to better understand where the opportunities are," said Jim Carter, American's head of sales in the Northeast. "In New York City, we have a very good business destination portfolio. It became very apparent to us that we probably had some opportunities on the leisure side, as well."

American will fly New York-San Jose and New York-Montego Bay daily beginning Nov. 21. On the San Jose route, American will be the lone carrier, according to the website Flight Connections, although it will compete with United service from Newark. American will enter a more crowded New York-Montego Bay market, competing against JetBlue, Delta and Caribbean Airlines. American will also compete against Caribbean Airlines on daily Georgetown service, which launches in December.

American will operate New York-Liberia weekly, competing against JetBlue, which operates the route five times per week.

Along with those new routes, American said that it will expand its daily seasonal JFK-Antigua service to a year-round and convert its weekly summer route between New York LaGuardia and Aruba to year-round.

American also serves Punta Cana and St. Thomas from New York.