Alterra Will Open Two New Boarding Gates For High Season Airport Traffic
Facing the "high" tourist season that is about to begin in Costa Rica, the Ministerio de Obras Pública y Transporte (MOPT) reached an agreement with Alterra Partners, the managers of the Juan Santamaría (San José) International airport, to open up two more boarding gates to handle the expected increase in volume.

Come December 8, Alterra will have two boarding gates that are no under construction opened for use by the public. "

Viviana Martin, vice minister of Transportes, said that users of the airport would prefer to be inconvenienced by using a boarding gate that is under construction than to have have to wait hours in line to board their flight.

"Passengers will notice that the boarding gates are under construction, but will be air conditioned, have lighting, bathrooms and shops. The floor will not be finished in time and neither will the finishings, but will be useable", said the director of engineering for Alterra, Eduardo Chamberlain.

The contractors will be busy working in finishing the boarding gates and some customers may be inconvenienced, however, it is the intent of the airport manager and transportation authorities to minimize the waiting for passengers leaving Costa Rica.

The two new boarding gates will have a capacity for 600 people and board two flights at the same time.

It is estimated that during the "high" season some 1 million passengers will be using the Santamaría terminal and the waiting time to board their flight should be not more than 45 minutes.

Alterra is still waiting on word from the government on the proposal they  received from the banks financing the work at the airport to complete the terminal.

The airport manager says that the "high" season officially begins on December 8 and will end in April of 2007. During this period, Alterras says it is putting in place their contingency plan to add more staff, more buses to move people and more importantly, to coordinate with the airlines to stagger their flights.

The biggest reason for the delays at the airport are the arrival and departure of a number of flights within minutes of each other during the mid afternoon and evening periods.