Juan Santamaría International Airport

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Juan Santamaría International Airport
Aeropuerto Internacional Juan Santamaría
IATA: SJO - ICAO: MROC
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator Dirección General de Aviacion Civil
Serves San José, Costa Rica
Elevation AMSL 3,021 ft (921 m)
Coordinates 09°59′37″N, 84°12′31″W
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
07/25 9,881 3,012 Asphalt

Juan Santamaría International Airport (Spanish: Aeropuerto Internacional Juan Santamaría) (IATA: SJO, ICAO: MROC) is located in Alajuela about 20 km from San José, Costa Rica. It is named after Costa Rica's National Hero Juan Santamaría, a courageous drummer boy who died in 1856 defending his country against forces led by American adventurer William Walker. The airport, which is Costa Rica's primary airport, serves about three million people each year, a great number of them tourists from Canada, Europe and the United States. There are three other international airports in the country but only the Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia, Guanacaste is served by major airlines. A third international airport is in process of being constructed in the southern region of the country, and according to the "Dirección General de Aviación Civil" it will be ready in the year 2010.

Alajuela, the birthplace of Juan Santamaría, is located 3 km from the airport.

The airport serves as a hub for TACA/Lacsa for its international network and for TACA's subsidiary Sansa for its domestic network.

The airport's long runway allows for operations of large, widebody aircraft.

The airport has a little N.A.S.A hangar where they keep research aircrafts that operate in Costa Rica.

The airport has the usual assortment of duty-free shops. It also has a food court that includes some fast-food restaurants.

Juan Santamaria charges a $26 USD departure tax which can be paid in cash (U.S. dollars or Costa Rican colones) or by Visa.

Contents

[edit] Infraestructure

This airport is the busiest airport in Central America because it handles more than 3 million passengers each year. It has 8 gates and 3 "subgates", another 7 gates are under construction in the new terminal. There is also a VIP room. The airport is a single building. In the first part are located the ticket counters, then the security part, and at the back the gates, restaurants, and shops.

Even though it is one of TACA's hub it does not operates most of the flights. Instead many other airlines operate many flights each day. For example TACA offers one daily flight to Miami but American Airlines offers 3 daily flights, or TACA offers 2 daily flights to Panama but Copa Airlines offers 4 daily flights.

[edit] Ground Transportation

There is a bus stop outside the airport. The Alajuela-San José route buses stop there in both directions. Buses from other routes also stop there, but you might have to change buses to get to the city center.

Taxis charge US$14 and upward for trips to San José, with some unlicensed taxis charging considerably more, and some charging considerably less. Taxis will generally accept both colones and U.S. dollars, but not other currencies. Licensed taxis are red with yellow triangles on the doors, additionally there is an airport taxi service that is liscenced and employs orange taxis- their rates are significantly higher than that of the non-airport taxis.

There is an ATM at the baggage claim area (VISA, MasterCard) and another in the second level by the curbside of the entrance to departures (Visa, MasterCard, American Express) that dispenses colones and US dollars.

[edit] Airlines and destinations

[edit] Terminal 1

[edit] Terminal 2

Under construction


British Airways 777

Trans Wind Cargo

Aerolineas Argentinas

Polar Air Cargo

[edit] New Projects

Juan Santamaria International has been operated by Alterra Partners since 2001 as part of a plan to improve the airport by the Costa Rican government. In 2002-2003 they made huge changes to the old terminal because it was not capable to manage the highly increasing number of passengers and airlines, and demolished the old control tower and built a new one with the same design of the new terminal. Now the Airport has a new terminal under construction with three new waiting rooms for passenger and seven new jetway bridges. The construction will end by the end of February or in MarOne of the new probable projects on the airport is a new runway across runway 07 which is the only runway in the airport.

[edit] Coopesa

Coopesa is a Costa Rican company that fixes aircraft for airlines, this company can paint aircraft interiors, exteriors, and logo layouts. They also convert airliners into cargo aircrafts. The Coopesa hangar is located next to the N.A.S.A. hangar in SJO airport. This company has a very high standard in converting aircrafts so that airlines from all the Americas like Hawaiian Airlines and Varig have brought airplanes to the Coopesa hangar to be fixed recently.

[edit] Gallery

Air France Concorde in SJO

Concorde in Costa Rica

[edit] External links

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