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TACA President Says San José Airport Not Equipped To Handle the High Season
Inside Costa Rica

Officials of the TACA airline warn that coming "high season" will be a pure pain in the neck for tourists and the airlines as the Juan Santamaría (San José) international airport is not equipped to handle the arrival of more passengers. "Costa Rica has to get with it to have an airport like tourists and Costa Ricans deserve, it is a shame the airport Costa Rica now has. Going through the airport is torture", said Roberto Kriete, executive president of TACA, following a press conference in San Salvador, the home base of the airline.

The situation stems from the problems that the Costa Rican government has had with the builder and manager of the airport, Alterra Partners, who for years have been locked in a battle and and an attempt to find a solution to finish the Santamaría terminal. Kriete said that the airport should have 20 boarding gates and not the actual four.

The TACA president made analogy of the airport being a patient that was critically injured and being treated with band aids and that the government should make a major investment in the development of the airport and not simply treat the short term problems. Kriete did not discard that the small things being done help out, but that is not the solution to the problem.

One of the areas that the airport has to improve greatly, according to Kriete, is the co-ordination between immigration and customs officials to have more staff on hand to handle the increased volume of people coming and going from the country. The lack of approach landing lights, which have not been operations for several years, is another problem that has caused airlines money and inconvenienced passengers.

"The approach lights are a big help and used to line up the airplane with the landing strip, without them the approach distance is minimal", said Juan Carlos Barquero, TACA operations manager. Barquero added that he has sent letters to both Alterra and Aviación Civíl (Civil aviation) and still no one has found a solution to the problem. According to the pilots the responsibility of the consequences of an accident is on their shoulders and many, especially for the foreign airline pilots, prefer not to land in foul weather without the approach lights.

This week alone a number of flights were delayed and/or diverted on three days because of poor weather which would have been less if the airport had the approach landing lights working. One TACA flight on Wednesday was sent back to El Salvador only to get clearing for landing in San José an hour later. In the cases of flight originating from the United States and Europe, many end in Panama, Nicaragua and in some cases Liberia.

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You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!

That's rather terrifying....

Glad the arrival time for my next trip is mid-afternoon. I did have the option of a 9:30 p.m. arrival, but I don't like getting in that late. I'm sure that landing would be a "white-knuckler".

As to the customs issue, it took me about an hour to get through on arrival & much longer for departure on my last trip (January).

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I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elderberries. Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!

I heard it was 40 flights yesterday that were cancelled/delayed due to the fog even during the day. Some flights never even made it out of the US.

Anyone else have any more details on this?

I think I read this in today's Tico Times on-line edition.

Yep, it's mentioned on page 4.

Hey veterans tell me when is high season and whats the weather like in Dec? Cold, cool? Wet?

Last early Dec. over 5-6 days was mostly heaven but hell on the way to Jaco (rained like a Son of a Beach). First 2-3 nights in San Pedro was great weather and last day from Jaco returning to the Airport was absolute best weather I have seen in a long time anywhere. 82 degrees, partly cloudy with nice breeze and could see for miles. For that alone I did not want to leave.