The International Airport at San Jose will have added capacity to handle 260,000 passengers a year, with two new boarding gates and another 1,000 square meters in commercial spaces.
As explained Vilma Lopez, deputy director of Civil Aviation, Aeris (manager of the terminal), will be the company in charge of the enlargement process in the east of the terminal, opposite Cooperativa Autogestionaria de Servicios Aeroindustriales (Coopesa R. L).
Among the works scheduled in Costa Rica’s main airport is the extension of the remote ramp from its current 75,000 meters to 91,000 meters.
Next year San Jose International Airport will extend its operational capacity with new works, with an investment of $15 million.
Elfinancierocr.com quoted Luis Carlos Araya, Vice minister of Air Transport, who said "This allows us to streamline the process of entry and departure of aircraft both for cargo and passengers. In addition, it will improve efficiency, since aircraft will not have to be towed and can therefore enter on their own. "
A new satellite signal system, installed at the Juan Santamaria Airport in Costa Rica, will reduce the prohibitive zone of tall buildings in areas near the terminal.
Edwin Jimenez, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, said the municipalities of Alajuela and Belen will be affected by these changes, because in those places there is interest in constructing buildings with heights of over twenty meters.
The international airport in the capital of Costa Rica, will be too small to meet the air traffic needs of Costa Rica in the next 10 years.
In 1996 the U.S. consultancy firm TAMS Inc. "recommended the Civil Aviation authority to move the administration of Juan Santamaria Airport into private hands, while a new terminal was being built", which should be operational in 2020.
On offer in Juan Santamaria International Airport are spaces for a gift shop, an ice cream parlor and coffee shop, a fast food outlet, and spaces for ATMs.
Aeris Holding Costa Rica, the company managing the Juan Santamaria Airport, has opened a contest for 3 commercial spaces: a gift shop, with flowers, cards and other items, an ice cream parlor and coffee shop, selling juices and the like, and a fast food restaurant.
The Costa Rican airport operator, Aeris, will be putting out to tender in the short term three areas for selling food and one for a gift shop.
In "a matter of days", a tender will be launched for restaurant areas measuring 66 square meters, said Maria Amalia Revelo, commercial director of Aeris, of the spaces which must be awarded no later than mid-October.
In the absence of plans for the expansion of the El Salvador International Airport, the airline is hoping to settle in another of the region’s capitals.
Comalapa airport is home to AviancaTaca and its air hub in the region, but it is becoming stretched to capacity and inadequate for the airline’s expansion plans.
According to an article in Elsalvador.com, executive vice president of the airline AviancaTaca, Stuart Ortiz, "has not ruled out another country in Central America for establishing a regional hub, especially for travelers moving between the region and the U.S. ... if in the next five years the Government of El Salvador has not initiated a master plan to expand the airport in Comalapa’s capacity to attend to aircraft."
The Costa Rican price regulator has approved a 6.72% increase in the rates for aeronautical services offered at the International Airport, Juan Santamaria.
The authorized increase, less than that requested by the Civil Aviation Technical Council (Cetac) of 24.75%, will take effect once it has been published in the Official Gazette.
Based on this increase, the new rate for 90 minutes at the airport apron for a A 320, will be in $511.06.
The hangar used by Servicios Aeroindustriales will relocate from its current position to make room for the terminal expansion at Juan Santamaria International Airport.
After 15 years of discussions, the government of Costa Rica and Self-Management Cooperative Aeroindustriales Services (Coopesa) have reached a final agreement for the relocation of the hangar where aircraft maintenance services are provided, which until now has sat on the north side of the passenger terminal at the international Airport, preventing the necessary expansion of the Juan Santamaría.
$100 million of loans have been granted, paving the way for larger passenger capacity at Juan Santamaria Airport.
A press release from the Inter-American Development Bank reads:
Juan Santamaria International Airport in San Jose, Costa Rica has successfully completed a three-year restructuring process and is preparing to more than double its passenger capacity after partnering with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).
The Board of Directors of OPIC approved resources to support the expansion of the Juan Santamaría International Airport.
OPIC's loan will allow a consortium led by HAS Development Corporation (HASDC) to complete the renovation of the Juan Santamaría International Airport outside San Jose.
The project includes a terminal extension for immigration and customs procedures, waiting rooms and additional parking in remote areas.
The Costa Rican airport has now capacity to handle 3 million passengers a year.
Carlos Plass, chief executive of airport operator, Aeris Holding Costa Rica, spoke of expansion work, indicating that airline counters increased by 30% (from 58 to 78), immigration from12 seats to 28 and security check points doubled.
El Financiero´s web site reports, "In total, the airport now has 33,000 square meters, of which Aeris built about 11,500 in a year, while Alterra did 12,500 from 2001 through 2009."
On April 28, the airport will inaugurate new boarding gates and 28 migration control stations.
All in all, the new building features 1.153 square meters of space.
Adolfo Lobo is part of the overseeing entity that controls if the company in charge of the works, Aeries, complies with the contract. He told newspaper La Prensa Libre that “this building was concluded one month before schedule, so the following projects may also begin earlier”.
The operator of International Airport Juan Santamaría changed its name to Aeris Holdings.
The announcement was made by Carlos Plass, Aeris' new executive director in a press release: "... the new partners not only wanted to, but also needed to change the former name...".
La Prensa Libre reports: "...the new leaders of the company explained that the project goes on according to schedule, and they guarantee they will finish the passenger terminal and Block C boarding areas by mid-2010. They mentioned that in 2011 they will deliver the boarding areas of Blocks D and E, effectively ending the second modernization phase of the airport".
Terminal's operator will use $45 million loan to refinance debt, carry out key infrastructure and service improvements
The Inter-American Development Bank approved a $45 million long-term loan to help finance the expansion of the Juan Santamaría International Airport in San José, Costa Rica, and support its new operator's plans to refinance debt.
The non-sovereign guaranteed loan will be made to Alterra Partners Costa Rica SA (APCR), the airport’s operating company, owned since July 2009 by Brazilian, Canadian and U.S. partners.