Costa Rica’s Dirección General de Aviación Civil – Civil Aviation – on Wednesday, March 13 announced that, until further notice, the operation of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 737 MAX 9 aircraft in the Costa Rican airspace is prohibited.
The Director of Civil Aviation, Captain Guillermo Hoppe Pacheco, indicated that the decision is taken as a preventive measure, primarily for the safety of all passengers and crew.
Since Monday, a day after the Ethiopian Airlines crash, many countries began to temporarily ban the operation of these aircraft in their airspaces. Fifty countries have now grounded or banned the planes inside their airspace.
Who has those planes in the region?
Some of the airlines that operate from and to Costa Rica that include among their fleet Boeing 737 Max 8 or 9 aircraft are Copa Airlines, Aeromexico, Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American, Southwest, United, and WestJet.
At the Juan Santamaría International Airport in San Jose (SJO), American Airlines, Copa and Aeromexico maintain these aircraft models within their operations.
Meanwhile, in the Daniel Oduber interational airport in Libeira (LIR), Guanacaste, Southwest and Sunwing operate with these aircraft.
