QCOSTARICA – The Dutch airline, KLM, assured Friday afternoon, January 22, that it maintains its flight plan to Costa Rica, but warned that the demand for an antigen test has travel to the Netherlands in suspense.
Catalina Vergara, communication manager for Air France and KLM for the Andean region and Central America, explained this Friday that the company maintains passenger and cargo service between Amsterdam and Costa Rica.
The flight program is maintained because Costa Rica was not included by the Dutch authorities among the countries and regions prohibited from entering the Netherlands. It was only the United Kingdom, South Africa and South America.
However, she said, Costa Rica is among a long list of nations with high risk of contagion, published by the authorities of that country.
For all travelers originating in the countries on that list, the Netherlands requires two requirements: a negative PCR test performed 72 hours before the trip and an antigen test, performed four hours before boarding the plane, Vergara explained.
Currenlty, in Costa Rica it is possible to comply with the negative PCR test, but it has not been possible to carry out antigen tests, added Vergara, and for this reason, KLM cannot, at this time, transport passengers from Costa Rica to the Netherlands, as it workd on a solution on how to meet this requirement.
Meanwhile, Vergara explained, every effort is being made to rearrange passengers leaving Costa Rica on the flights of Air France, the other airline in the group.
READ ALSO: KLM suspends flights to Costa Rica due to new health restrictions from the Dutch government
On Thursday, January 21, news circulated that KLM decided to suspend all its long-distance international flights as of this Friday, January 22, including those it operates to and from Costa Rica.
The measure would respond to the new covid-19 prevention regulations, announced on Wednesday by the government of the Netherlands, as confirmed by the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT).
Even the Minister of Tourism, Gustavo Segura, described the situation as news that is not good for the recovery of the tourism sector, one of the hardest hit in Costa Rica by the pandemic.
But KLM assured that the service itinerary is maintained, as long as Costa Rica is not on the list of prohibition of entry of travelers to the Netherlands.
The KLM executive clarified, however, that the airline remains waiting for a solution so that antigen tests can be carried out in Costa Rica. “With a solution to that, the transport of people to Amsterdam would be normalized,” stated Vergara.
