Civil Aviation in Costa Rica decided to suspend indefinitely the operation permit of domestic airline Nature Air.

The reason behind the suspension, according to the aviation authority, is due to the “abandonment of routes”, since the company has not resumed its operations even though the previous suspension has been lifted since February.

“They have a certificate and an approval of routes, there has never been a cancellation of routes by the Technical Council of Civil Aviation”, explained Ennio Cubillo, Director of Civil Aviation, who added that there’s also a series of failures to fulfill certain obligations that are also under consideration, one of these situations is the lack of necessary fleet to handle the operation.

Nature Air has been facing problems since December 31st, 2017, the day of the tragic plane crash in which 12 people died, 10 American tourists and the two Costa Rican pilots. A few days later their operations were suspended by Civil Aviation due to “ lack of proper structure  to operate properly and guarantee the execution of the flight operations with safety“;  and although they received green light to resume operations three weeks later, the company reported important financial loses, of over $1.2 million, according to General Manager Nelson Vega, and was forced to fire over 30 employees.

Customers have also been raising their voices on social media as many have not been reimbursed for tickets purchased ahead of their first suspension.

The company Air Costa Rica that operated charter flights also had their permit suspended due to “regulatory inconsistencies” of their management structure and aircrafts.