Nature Air received the green light from the General Directorate of Civil Aviation to resume its operations in Costa Rica last Thursday, after a suspension of more than 20 days.

The domestic airline has confirmed their flights will be operating again on Friday, February 9. According to general manager Nelson Vega, they are maintaining all the destinations but they are reducing the frequency of flights by 40%, they will no longer depart from the Juan Santamaria Airport but only from the Tobias Bolaños in Pavas. Ennio Cubillo, director of Civil Aviation, confirmed that this decrease in the frequency of flights was one of the requirements to lift the suspension.

Nature Air currently has only one airplane that belongs to the company, and additional planes that they operate through what is known as “wet lease” ( a leasing arrangement whereby one airline provides an aircraft, complete crew, maintenance, and insurance to another airline or other type of business acting as a broker of air travel), they also confirmed the purchase of two other planes, a process that was already began before the suspension and that will be now completed by mid-February, the light aircrafts are two engine Twin Otter planes.

The company now has increased the number of pilots on their payroll and currently have 14, more than they actually need based on the flights they will now be operating.

In total Nature Air flies to 12 destinations. In the past they offered daily flights to Nosara, Guanacaste, now, they will only fly to Nosara 4 days a week; while flights to Tortuguero, which were also daily were reduced to just three times a week.

Nature Air was notified by Civil Aviation of the suspension of its operations just 11 days after a plane crash in Dec. 31 where 12 people (10 U.S. tourists and 2 Costa Rican pilots) lost their lives, due to the fact that the company “didn’t have the structure to operate properly and guarantee the execution of the flight operations with safety;” in particular since they lost key personnel after the death of pilot Juan Manuel Retana (in the tragic plane crash of Dec.31) who was the Chief Trainer; the resignation of the Director of Operations, Jorge Valverde shortly after the crash, and the sick leave of Rodney Duran, Chief of Flight Security.

According to Vega, the company has been working with clients that had reserved flights to reimburse them. He assured in an interview with national news daily La Nacion, that the suspension has resulted in losses of over $1.2 million.