Domestic airline Nature Air was forced to fire 31 employees yesterday, according to the organization this decision obeyed to the “delay in the restructuring and approval of necessary loans to continue the company’s operation”.

Nature Air received authorization from the National Directorate of Civil Aviation to resume their operations the first week of February, lifting a suspension that affected the operations of the company for three weeks. Back then, Nelson Vega, General Manager of Nature Air had assured in an interview with daily La Nacion that the suspension had resulted in losses of over $1.2 million.

The suspension of the operations were justified by Civil Aviation stating that the company “didn’t have the structure to operate properly and guarantee the execution of the flight operations with safety;” in particular since they lost key personnel after the death of pilot Juan Manuel Retana who was the Chief Trainer (one of the victims of the tragic plane crash of Dec.31 where the 2 pilots and 10 US tourists died); the resignation of the Director of Operations, Jorge Valverde shortly after the crash, and the sick leave of Rodney Duran, Chief of Flight Security. The suspension was lifted after Nature Air presented the necessary documentation and proof that they had taken necessary actions including the hiring of key personnel to resume their operations with safety and in compliance with the requirements of Civil Aviation.

The difficulties faced by the companies apparently caused problems in the approval of loans “This has resulted on a very heavy load in all aspects, two months ago we expressed our concern that if things weren’t handled immediately it will lead to this critical reality. The truth of the matter is that the unusual time it took the authorities to lift the suspension of our license, due to an administrative and not a security matter, worsen the situation”, explained Alex E. Khajavi, CEO of Nature Air.

Nature Air informed that this situation affects 80 families directly, which depend on them, but also the productive chain that includes close to 26 thousand local and foreign tourists that used their services.

“Due to this situation and despite our good disposition of continuing to take on our responsibility with the employees’ salaries, even when they weren’t working, we saw it necessary to reduce personnel to fulfill the company’s obligations” concluded Khajavi.