QCOSTARICA – The new airline, Air Costa Rica, has received its operating license enabling it to operate from the Juan Santamaria (San Jose) international airport starting later this year.
The airline, a joint Costa Rican and Panamian investment, said it will now begin the process of getting ready to connect Costa Rica directly to Bogota (Colombia), Miami (US), Guayaquil (Ecuador) and Lima (Peru).
Other destinations under consideration include Los Angeles and New York, as well as other Latin American cities.
Air Costa Rica will begin charter flights through travel agencies and complete formalities to operate in other Central American countries, said Carlos Viquez, the airline’s general manager.
The airline will begin operations with two Boeing 737 airplanes with a capacity for 130 passengers, and two Fokker 100 with a capacity for 100, will carry the Costa Rican flag, display a colibrí (humming-bird) and the phrase “Pura Vida” on its fuselage.
The airline confirmed Monday receiving its certification from the Dirección General de Aviación Civil, with the Certificado de Operación Aéreo (COA) expected before the end this week.
According to Viquez, with the certification Air Costa Rica can now consider itself a Costa Rican airline.
The company so far having hired 31 people, the pilots coming from the Panamerican Flight Safety School in Miami, while mechanics, dispatchers and flight attendants from the Air Panamá (Air Costa Rica sister airline) headquarters in Panama. Its plans are to increase staff to about 100.
