The Juan Santamaria International airport in San Jose (SJO) continues to struggle to keep up with the greater influx of passengers during the high season.
On Saturday (March 2) the airport handled 137 flights and almost 20,000 passengers (9.892 arrival and 9,687 departures), requiring the immigration service – Dirección General de Migración y Extranjera (DGME) – to reinforce its staff with 20 more officers.
During the peak times of 11 am and 2 pm, the wait for arriving passengers to be processed through immigration and customs has been up to 2 hours, even more on some days, while during off peak hours the processing time has been between 40 minutes to an hour.
Working alongside the immigration service at the Santamaria are other agenices such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería), Customs (Aduana), Airport Police (Policía Aeroportuaria), Interpol, OIJ, General Directorate of Civil Aviation (Dirección General de Aviación Civil) and National Police (Fuerza Publica), all with the aim of providing a good service to national and international travelers.
Click here to check flight arrivals and departures at the SJO.
