Speedy arrivals are met by long line’s at Costa Rica’s major airport.

Most of us have flown in and out of San José’s Juan Santamaría International Airport, actually located in Alajuela, San José’s northwestern neighbor. If your experiences are anything like the norm, you’ve noticed that wait times to pass through immigration can vary greatly depending on your time of arrival. Land at an low-traffic time, and you’ll fly through Customs and be out of the airport in 20 minutes, but if you arrive during airport rush hour, you could be waiting in line for hours.

In the last few days, airport visitors have suffered unusually long wait times at Migración, or Customs. Alterra, the airport’s manager, has confirmed that airport through-traffic has slowed to a crawl, acknowledging that wait times are longest on weekends and when several flights arrive at the same time, usually between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.

During high-traffic times, there are not enough Customs employees to handle the influx of arrivals. The airport has been suffering from the same problems over the last several months, though no statistics exist to confirm how many. But the problem has begun to grow to worrisome proportions, with new arrivals not just complaining about wait times, but actually raising their voices and hurling insults at Customs officials regarding their low staffing.

On March 31, a team from La Nación visited Juan Santamaría at 9 p.m. — a recognized high-traffic time — and noted that only seven of the airport’s 18 Customs cubicles were staffed. That night, 11 flights landed in San José, likely delivering between 1,000 and 2,000 residents and tourists to Costa Rica. On a second visit at 1 p.m., also a rush hour time, there were only 8 windows open. However, when airport staff became aware of press presence, Customs immediately increased from 8 open windows to 11.

Mario Zamora, director of the Office of Customs and Immigration, admitted that around noon, the airport lacks staff because many employees take their lunch break. In addition, during night hours, the Juan Santarmarí Airport only has 11 available staffers, so it is difficult to have many Customs windows open and available to process arriving visitors.

Zamora states that the problem is not solely the airport’s fault, but that airlines have increased their number of flights, which has caused a previously well-staffed airport to fall behind. Also, when flights arrive early or late, airport schedules are thrown off and an already-pressured Customs area becomes over-crowded and emotions run higher than normal.

In addition to too-few open Customs windows, increased flights, and poorly scheduled arrivals, Zamora states that the Juan Santamaría Airport is also victim to Alterra’s delay in creating a larger waiting area. Such a tight space is overwhelming to the airport’s arriving visitors, and after long flights, a small waiting room only serves to increase anxiety and intensify agitation.

To solve airport Customs mishaps, coordination and collaboration between Alterra, the airlines, and the airport itself will have to take place, hopefully increasing space for waiting arrivals, on-schedule landings, and better-staffed Customs windows for when you finally hand over your immigration papers.

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Filed under: Travel on April 4th, 2008