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Southern Airport Studied (article as it appears in the Tico Times - May 27th Issue) Community leaders say the proposed international airport in the Southern Zone would bring more tourists and help the region's struggling economy. By Rebecca Kimitch More than a year after President Abel Pacheco promised an international airport to the people of the Southern Zone, the region is finally seeing the first signs of the ambitious project. A special commission of the Civil Aviation Authority is nearing completion of a preliminary study to determine a location for the proposed Southern Zone airport, according to Gustavo González, general coordinator of airports for Civil Aviation. The new facility would be comparable in size to the Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia, capital of the northwest province of Guanacaste. While officials are zeroing in on the location of the airport, how the project will be financed and when it might be built remain up in the air. Several private companies have already expressed interest in a concession to construct a Southern Zone airport, according to Roberto Arguedas, Vice-Minister and acting Minister of Public Works and Transport. González, however, maintains a Southern Zone airport should not be built through a private concession. Instead, the airport should be built, put into operation and made profitable by the government. Only then should the possibility of a concession be explored, he said. If the airport were to be made profitable, potential operators would be more willing to share profits with the government, rather than if private operators have to build it and make it profitable, González explained.
Arguedas pointed out that acquiring government funds for large infrastructure projects has become an increasingly difficult task for debt-burdened Costa Rica. The government is open to the idea of a private company constructing it through a concession, he said. President Pacheco has discussed the possibility of such a concession with the Spanish company AENA, according to the daily La República. Using concessions for airport projects has been put on the hot seat recently, as renovation of the country's principal airport near San José, Juan Santamaría, has been on hold for more than two years because of a contract dispute between the government and the airport's private operator, Alterra Partners. Meanwhile, legislators have proposed a bill to expand the airports in Liberia and the Caribbean port city of Limón through government-owned private businesses (TT, May 13). Private businesses also are interested in acquiring concessions to renovate those airports, Arguedas said. However, he added, only requests for information have been made and no negotiations have begun. Regarding the Southern Zone airport, he said. “As soon as we have a site identified, we will look for the resources.” The preliminary study of a suitable location for the Southern Zone airport – requested by Pacheco last year – will narrow the selection from five possible sites to two, Civil Aviation's González explained. More extensive studies of the two possible sites' tectonics, aeronautics, soil and weather patterns will follow in the next year, he added. The idea, he said, is to build an airport that is accessible to the entire region and equidistant from the region's major cities and towns, including San Isidro de El General, on the Inter-American Highway; Golfito, on the Gulfo Dulce; Buenos Aires, near the Panama border; Puerto Jiménez, on the Osa Peninsula; and Quepos, on the central Pacific coast. It should also be accessible to people on the other side of the border. Gonzaléz declined to specify the exact sites under study, saying, “naming names is not a good idea because it would give areas we are only studying false expectations.” Expectations are already nearing disappointment in some areas of the region, according to Luis Centeno, president of the Palmar Norte-based Osa Chamber of Tourism. “We are worried. Since we were promised an airport in Finca 18 (10 minutes south of nearby Palmar Sur) in January 2004, we have not seen one advance,” he said. González said, however, that an international airport in the Southern Zone will be a reality in the not-too-distant future. “This would allow the populations of the Southern Zone more rapid access to an international airport, so they don't have to drive the four or more hours to San José,” he said. “In addition, it would bring, as the President has explained, development to tourism and the economy of the area.” Arguedas agreed. “We have a real necessity because of the poverty and unemployment in the region. Large projects like this can be a generator of jobs,” he said. González emphasized the ideal location would be a site central to the entire region. He also said all existing small airports have been eliminated as possibilities: Quepos and Palmar Sur because of their proximity to mountains, Golfito and Puerto Jiménez because of their relative isolation. Preliminary studies – which have included site visits, flyovers and meetings with engineers, pilots and regional authorities – will be complete in two or three months, and a report recommending two ideal sites for further study will be released. More extensive studies will take less than one year, he estimated, adding, “From there, we will see where to go next.” While the Osa Chamber's Centeno and other business leaders in the region hope an international airport will become a reality, they are cautious about how the project will be put in motion. Centeno warns that haste and lack of planning could result in an experience similar to that of the airport in Liberia, which has grown rapidly since its first regular international flight began arriving in December 2002 (TT, Dec. 6, 2002), from three flights a week in 2003 to 33 flights a week now. The growth has been accompanied by a boom in hotels and residential communities. However, infrastructure, such as roads, sewage treatment plants and aqueducts, has been slow to follow in many communities. In addition, the Daniel Oduber airport itself, built in 1974, is in need of expansion. “I support a new airport, if and only if they make the preparations so that everything works, and project 10 years ahead, instead of just thinking in the short term,” said Guillermo Sibaja, manager of operations of the Diuwak Hotel and Beach Resort in Dominical, southwest of San Isidro de El General. “They must build a large, modern airport, with all of the surrounding infrastructure – improved roads and highways; transportation from the airport to the surrounding hotels and car rentals; and nearby necessities such as banks, information centers with bilingual operators,” he continued. Centeno agrees leaders in the Southern Zone should learn from Guanacaste. “We need excellent planning,” he said. The chamber president added the region should take care to conserve what he called “personalized, familiar service” with hotels offering 25-40 rooms maximum and no “mega hotels.” The Southern Zone, boasting a diversity of natural attractions and one of the world's most ecologically diverse protected areas, Corcovado National Park, is known for small ecotourism and sustainable development projects. Centeno said the airport itself should reflect this and be rustic and ecologically attractive, without big concrete structures, and should not negatively affect the region's ecosystems. The Osa Chamber of Commerce considers Finca 18 to be the best place for the airport, because it is centrally located and the number of people living in its immediate vicinity is limited, he added. |
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