"Costa Rica airport works face 9mth delay"

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Intl. airport works face 9mth delay
BNamericas.com


Modernization works for Costa Rica's Juan Santamaria international
airport will be delayed for at least nine months in a rift over the
project's budget, the Diario Extra reported.

The delay is due to airport concessionaire Alterra's request for
arbitration, after differences arose with civil aviation technical
committee (Cetac). The arbitration process is expected to run for a
minimum of nine months to a year, the paper said. 

Costa Rica's transport minister Javier Chaves had previously moved to
annul the contract, alleging that Alterra did not want to put out US$8mn
in financing to resolve project-financing difficulties, BNamericas
previously reported. 

Earlier this month, Alterra proposed to Cetac that it would provide the
necessary US$8mn to finish works on the new terminal in exchange for a
financial-stability guarantee for the project. 

The airport, located outside capital San Jose, handles more than 2
million passengers a year, over half of whom are tourists.


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