COSTA RICA NEWS — It had been announced that, starting December 3, the airlines would include the departure tax at Costa Rica’s international airport in the airfare. But, in reality it won’t be until February next year, saId the president of the Asociación de Líneas Aéreas (ALA) – Airline Association, Mario Zamora.
Making the situation worse is that each airline will decide on the date when it will start doing so, most saying they plan on adopting the measure after the end of the year-end travel season.
Furthermore, today only 5 of the 16 airlines has signed the agreement with Bancrédito, the Costa Rica bank arilines will make payment to, that in turn makes remittances to the government coffers, said Zamora from Casa Presidencial (Government House).
Thus, the objective of ending the lines at the San José (SJO) and Liberia (LIR) airports to pay the tax, will have to wait a little longer.
Zamora said the direct collection is voluntary, airlines are not required to make the change. No word from Civil Aviation if airlines who do not adopt the measure may see their operations in the country reviewed.
Zamora added that the direct collection does not apply to charter and private flights.
The idea of including the airport tax in the airfare is so that passengers can move directly to the airline counter, without the need to stand in line to pay the tax on departure; for passengers with pre-checks, they can go straight to the security area, as is done at most airports around the world.
