Guillermo Hoppe, General Director of Civil Aviation (DGAC), gave accountability statements in front of the Tourism Commission of the Legislative Assembly about the lower air category granted by the Federal Aviation Agency of the United States. Hoppe blames airborne de-categorization for nine years of regulatory delays.
After an audit conducted between October and February, Costa Rica received a rating downgrade from Category 1 to Category 2, which means that Costa Rican aviation does not comply with the rules of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and therefore does not provide safety oversight of its air operators according to international standards.
This type of audits are carried out periodically and in the case of Costa Rica, the last time that Category 1 was renewed was in 2006.
To try to regain the category, Hoppe and Rodolfo Méndez, Minister of Public Works and Transportation, traveled in mid-June to the FAA headquarters in Washington DC, USA, where they signed a cooperation agreement for the Costa Rican authorities to regain the best rating as soon as possible.
The breaches detected by the FAA are summed up in 22 observations in rules and methods related to licenses, operations and airworthiness.