QCOSTARICA – COPA Airlines, one of two major regional carriers serving Costa Rica, reconsidered its decision to cancel all Costa Rica bound and outgoing flights on Friday and announcing that resumption of all flights from Panama, minutes after the reopening of the Juan Santamaria (San Jose) airport.
The airline had said the flight cancellations were “for safety of its passengers, crew and aircraft”.
Through its press officer in Costa Rica, Dino Starcevic, at 2pm Friday the airline said that the flight to Panama will depart on schedule and four flights inbound from that country.
Copa’s competitor, the Colombian airline Avianca, did not cancel any of their flights, waiting out the “temporary” closing of San Jose airport operations.
Thursday afternoon, Civil Aviation (Dirección General de Aviación Civil) ordered a temporary closure of the airport, that was extended to 8:00am Friday and then noon.
To the relief of more than 7.000 passengers in Costa Rica affected by the closure, at 11:00am Friday, Aviación Civil authorized Aeris, the manager of the San Jose airport, to lift the temporary closure and resume 100% of airport operations.
The terminal at Costa Rica largest international airport was paralyzed about 20 hours due to the expulsion of ash from the Turrialba volcano eruption.
