As the Costa Rica Star reported a few days ago, the General Directorate of Civil Aviation in Costa Rica, suspended the operations of Nature Air considering that the company currently doesn’t have the structure to operate properly and efficiently to guarantee the execution of the flight operations with safety; in particular since they are missing key personnel after the death of pilot Juan Manuel Retana, Chief Trainer, the resignation of the Director of Operations, Jorge Valverde, and the sick leave of Rodney Duran, Chief of Flight Security.

Nature Air, has emphasized that the measure taken by Civil Aviation is only temporary and the company has been working on solving the situation by replacing the necessary personnel, they are in constant communication with Civil Aviation awaiting the approval of the new hires and getting the hope the suspension is lifted in the near future so they can resume operations in the local market.

“It seems that this situation will be solved quickly. It is my understanding that Nature Air has already replaced the necessary personnel and has sent the information to Civil Aviation for their analysis and approval”, stated Mauricio Ventura, Minister of Tourism, in an interview with local news site AmeliaRueda.com.

The Minister of Tourism also mentioned his concern regarding the inconvenience the suspension represents for the travelers that already had their flights booked, but supports the decision based on the need to guarantee safe services to all passengers. According to Nature Air, close to 3000 people that had reservations are being contacted regarding the current situation and to coordinate a reimburse of funds

According to statistics by Civil Aviation, Nature Air absorbs a 30% of the domestic flights market which represents an approximate 8000 travelers a month (data 2016), while SANSA takes 54.9% of the total travelers and the rest of the passengers use other smaller companies.