-  Published:  Thursday, February 6, 2020-




By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Juan Santamaría International Airport in Alajuela, received the Airport Carbon Accreditation Level 2 certification on Wednesday due to the reduction of the carbon footprint in its operations.

According to Aeris, the company in charge of managing the airport, the Airport Carbon recognition granted by the International Airport Council, has four levels, from 1 to 4. The higher the level, the better the rating.

This certification is exclusive to the airport sector and the airport is the only one in Central America with that recognition, said Aeris in its statement.

The council has registered 11 Latin American airports in that category, in Perú, Colombia, Brazil, México, Uruguay, Dominican Republic and Ecuador.

"Obtaining the second level by reducing CO2 emissions in Aeris operations, confirms the commitment of our management with the environment and the decarbonization objectives set by the government of Costa Rica," said Adriana Bejarano of Aeris.

The recognition was due to actions taken to reduce the carbon footprint in airport operations, among these are:

- Renovation of the lighting system with efficient technology.

- Changing track edge lights from incandescent technology to LED technology.

- Installation of more efficient equipment in energy consumption in the wastewater treatment plant.

- Improvements in the management of preventive maintenance in air conditioning units.

- Organizing awareness campaigns for conscious consumption of electrical energy.

- Renovation of the vehicle fleet for more efficient cars.

An environmental goals set by Aeris is to reach the third level of the certificate. This implies maintaining the reduction of the carbon footprint annually, but also integrating the participation of third parties in reducing emissions, including as airlines and services providers that work at the airport facilities, the firm said.

Costa Rica has the chairmanship of the Environmental Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean of the International Airport Council, which allows it to promote good environmental and sustainability practices between airports in the region.

In September the airport, was named 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.

According to Aeris, 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.

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, cleaning 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.

According to Aeris, in 2019, the airport connects to Costa Rica with 38 destinations around the world. Some 28 international and four domestic commercial airlines operated at its facilities. Also last year, more than 5.4 million passengers passed through the airport.


 
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