A delegation headed by Rodolfo Méndez Mata, Minister of Public Works and Transport, held on Monday the first meeting with representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States (FAA) to get back the best air qualification for the country.
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 is carried out periodically and in the case of Costa Rica, the last time that Category 1 was renewed was in 2006.
As a first repercussion to that rejection, the Costa Rican flag airlines will not be able to open new flight routes or expand frequencies to US cities. This, according to the authorities, will affect companies such as Avianca Costa Rica or Volaris Costa Rica. Of course, the routes that already operated can continue as normal.
In addition to Méndez, the delegation is made up of Guillermo Hoppe, director of the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC), José Manuel Sáenz, director of the Technical Council of Civil Aviation (Cetac) and Juan Carlos Trabanino, president of the Central American Corporation of Services of Air Navigation (Cocesna).
The breaches detected by the FAA have to do with 22 observations in rules and methods related to licenses, operations and airworthiness.
The tour will be used to travel to Canada, where the ICAO headquarters is located, attached to the United Nations (UN), to promote the appointment of Hoppe as a representative of Costa Rica before that body.