Improvements to Liberia's international airport in Guanacaste, with a $95 million investment, is the most important project the Costa Rican government plans to carry out in the next four years.
The Ministry of Public Works (Mopt) informed that the Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport will receive a $95 million investment for the 2020-2024 period, in work to improve the taxiway, the reconstruction of the entire runway of almost 3 km in length, the reconstruction of the electrical system and expansions, which will involve more expropriations. This is one of the main investments, of the $160 million invested, in execution or to be allocated to local airports and aerodromes.
The current concessionaire of the air terminal has presented an application for an extension of the concession contract, and subsequently to assume works on expansion of the airport.
The company Coriport submitted an application in January to extend the concession contract it has held since 2010 for the operation of the international airport of Liberia in Guanacaste.If the proposal succeeds, the company will take on"... the renovation of the runway, construction of the taxiway for the aircraft to prepare for take-off, spaces for aircraft parking and new drains, among other things."
Construction of four new boarding gates, a taxiway and expanding the lobby are some of the investment projects that the concessionaire of Juan Santamaria airport plans to carry out between 2017 and 2019.
The company granted the concession for running Juan Santamaria International Airport in Costa Rica, has announced that $100 million will be invested over a period of two years in various works at the terminal, which will be completed by January 2020.
Work will begin in January 2017 at the Daniel Oduber airport in Guanacaste making possible a 20% increase in capacity at the terminal.
From a statement issued by the Government of Costa Rica:
In the early days of January 2017 redevelopment works will start at Daniel Oduber International Airport, which will be completed in November of that year.Using an investment of $10.3 million, the new facility will have the capacity to receive passengers until 2023, confirmed César Jaramillo, general manager of the Inter-American Investment Corporation (CORIPORT), the concessionaire in charge of the administration of the terminal company.
The concessionaire of the terminal has announced the expansion of boarding gates, the luggage reception area, commercial spaces, and the addition of shops and offices.
Coriport announced it will invest $10 million in the expansion work, which will start from the second quarter of the year in different areas in the airport.
Works have started with the movements of land to build a new aircraft maintenance hangar at the international airport in San Jose, a project valued at $39 million.
From a statement issued by the Government of Costa Rica:
New aircraft hangar to be built at Juan Santamaria Airport
Under the supervision of the Technical Council of Civil Aviation, earthworks have started for the construction of a new aircraft maintenance hangar, with corresponding workshops and other facilities that will be occupied by Coopesa, in the Juan Santamaria International Airport.
A terminal for domestic flights and a new fire station are part of the works that the administration of San Jose International Airport plans to start in November.
This project includes two ramps for aircraft waiting at the new domestic terminal and a fire station in in the southern sector, and it is expected that construction will start in November this year.The investment for these two works to be carried out simultaneously amounts to $20 million and is expected to be completed during 2016.
The tourism minister has ruled out the possibility of building a new airport, arguing that the current one has sufficient capacity and there is a more urgent need for improving and expanding the one in Liberia.
Remodeling the Daniel Oduber Airport in Guanacaste is the option which the tourism minister, Wilhelm von Breymann has proposed, since the construction of a new terminal is not a priority and would involve a long process of preparing feasibility studies.
Approval has been given to the design of a new maintenance hangar at the Juan Santamaria airport and the project will be started in the first half of the year.
In December the International Civil Aviation Organization approved plans and designs for the construction of a new 10,000 square meter hangar to accomodate up to 6 large aircraft. This will allow for the expansion of the main airport in Costa Rica to the east.
While the International Civil Aviation authority is putting out to tender feasibility studies, UNESCO has declared adjacent areas to be World Heritage Sites.
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As it is usual in the countries of the region, the money wasted will be paid by taxpayers, while it is unlikely that the state officials involved will stop collecting their salaries, let alone have to respond to their country for the outrages committed.
The enlargement of Quepos airport will cost $5 million and will allow the operation of aircraft that have capacity for 70 passengers.
With an investment of $5 million expansion has begun on La Managua airport in Quepos. The expansion, which is the responsibility of the Civil Aviation Technical Council, will allow for the arrival of larger aircraft. The airport currently receives up to 20 aircraft a day which have capacity for 16 passengers, but with improvements it will be able to receive aircraft carrying up to 70 occupants.
In terms of how modern the infrastructure for air transport is, Panama leads the field, followed distantly by Costa Rica.
"None of the airports in Central America comes close to knocking Tocumen off its number one position in the ranking by Skytrax, nor the ranking by the World Economic Forum. The latter measures the quality of infrastructure for air travel in the country , where Panama climbed from 38th place in 2007 to last year reach the prestigious position of sixth place," reported Elsalvador.com.
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).
The infrastructure in most airports in Central America can not cover the increase in the number of air passengers transiting in the region.
In the region, traffic has increased by almost 80% over the last ten years going from 95 million to 170 million passengers. "Today, 30% of Latin American flights take off or land at congested airports, which constitutes one of the main difficulties in the development of the airline industry," noted an article in Eleconomista.net.
Existing airports, with their obvious limitations, are unable to deal with the passenger numbers predicted for 2025.
The Spanish firm Ineco, which has developed a diagnostic report at the request of the authorities of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC by its initials in Spanish), estimated that within 12 years, San Jose International Airport will become obsolete and will be unable to guarantee the mobilization of 7 million passengers a year, at a growth rate of 4.8% annually.