Four new boarding gates, an airplane taxiway on the south side of the landing strip, a carousel for luggage and the expansion of the lobby are part of the projects that AERIS, the company in charge of the Juan Santamaría Airport since 2009, has planned.

The airport will receive an investment of $100 million USD starting in May of this year and through the following two years, to improve its infrastructure. The goal is to finish all construction work before January 2020.

This expansion is part of the commitments taken on by Aeris when they took over the administration of Costa Rica’s main airport.

According to Rafael Mencía, executive director of Aeris, all improvements are being done to satisfy the growing demand of the terminal and also to increase security.

In 2016 the Juan Santamaría airport provided service to 4.3 million passengers and that number is expected to increase to 4.6 million travelers this year.

The airport currently has 11 boarding gates, this May the construction of 2 more will begin in the west wing of the main building and they should be concluded by May 2018.

The next step will begin in October with the expansion of the lobby where currently 27 airlines have their client support counters; and in this same month a fifth luggage carousel will be built.

The taxiway on the south side and the extension of 60 meters of the landing strip will begin construction in 2018.

“Having that additional taxiway will improve the operations in the airport, since right now we only have the road on the north side and every time an airplane is getting ready for takeoff we have to close the runway for about 2 minutes, perhaps this sounds like a short time, but when you multiply that for the more than 70 international flights we receive every day, it is considerable”, explained Mencía to local newspaper La Nacion.

Finally by 2020 construction should begin of the other two boarding gates which will be located where Coopesa currently is.

The contract of administration of the airport concludes in 2026 which is why it is important for AERIS to finish all the work prior to the conclusion of the contract; however some of the work depends on Aviación Civil that needs to coordinate the move of Coopesa and expropriation of La Candela Restaurant.