-Published: Wednesday, November 27, 2019-




By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said an emergency drill will be held this morning at Juan Santamaría International Airport in Alajuela.

The accomplishment of this training will not affect the itinerary of any flight, although "the operation of the airport will be closed for 45 minutes in which there are no commercial flights scheduled," said Civil Aviation in its statement.

Even though no negative effects are expected on the entry and exit of flights, the agency confirmed that there will be negative effects on the traffic near the airport.

"The traffic police must close some streets as part of the protocol. and there will be a mobilization of emergency units," said the agency.

Travelers should consider arriving earlier to the airport due to road closures, said Civil Aviation.

The drill is scheduled between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. in one of the areas of the airport. The emergency will simulate a fire that will allow the officials to assess the capacity to respond in this kind of emergencies.

According to Álvaro Vargas of Civil Aviation, aspects such as control of operations, protocols for brigade care, evacuation of people, evaluation of areas of concentration of victims and the response time of Red Cross and firefighters will be evaluated.

Also, an area of the passenger waiting rooms will be closed during the drill without affecting operations, airport officials said.

Sept 23 Juan Santamaría International Airport was recognized as the one with the best improvement in all of Latin America and the Caribbean zone, according to the World Summit of Customer Experience, which was held in Bali, Indonesia.

The Airport Service Quality award is awarded by the International Airport Council. The organization analyzed 346 airports worldwide. The results were obtained from monthly passenger evaluations from those in boarding rooms in airport waiting areas.

According to Aeris, the airport operator, the periodic measurements made by the council determined aspects of improvement in the terminals, established a ranking and provided an annual average that placed Juan Santamaría in first place in the category of major improvement, among the 36 airports in the region.

"We received this award as part of the recognition of the dedicated work of our staff," said Rafael Mencía, executive director of Aeris. "We have incorporated modern infrastructure and technology, which together with the work of the Directorate of Migration and Air Surveillance, allows for simple processes and agility that satisfies the passenger experience and national security.”

This program evaluates the satisfaction of the passengers through 37 valuation items. Some of the most outstanding were time of check-in, waiting for security inspections, passport inspection, cleanliness and availability of bathrooms, parking facilities, ground transportation and courtesy and collaboration of the terminal staff.

According to Aeris, another improvement made was the availability of free Wi-Fi throughout the terminal, with 100 percent coverage and the possibility of the user staying connected for up to three hours.

In 2018, the airport was rated as No. 8 by the organization.







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