Nature Air (NRR, San José Tobías Bolaños) will resume commercial flights later on Monday, February 5, following a Costa Rican civil aviation authority (Dirección General de Aviación Civil de Costa Rica - DGACCR) decision to uplift an embargo on the airline's operations.
Nature Air was grounded on January 11 to allow the DGACCR to scrutinize its operations in the wake of the crash of Cessna (single turboprop) 208B Grand Caravan TI-BAF (msn 208B-0900) near Punta Islita on December 31, 2017, which killed all twelve on board. The incident resulted in the resignation of Nature Air's operations manager, Jorge Valverde Esquivel, the suspènsion of the license of its air security chief, Rodney Durán, and the death of the head of pilot training, Juan Manuel Retana. The DGACCR said at the time that the carrier did not possess the requisite personnel needed to ensure safe flight services.
However, the suspension of flights has had serious financial implications for Nature Air with management appealing to the Costa Rican president's office to uplift the ban, which was said to have cost the airline USD1.2 million in lost revenue. CEO Nelson Vega told La Nacion newspaper that should this continue, the carrier would have to close down thereby impacting employees as well as the tourism industry at large.
Following the appeal, the DGACCR issued a statement late last week signalling that Nature Air had now demonstrated that it had the necessary technical and administrative structures in place, and is in compliance with all relevant legislation, needed to conduct commercial passenger flights.
