Swissport International and its local venture partner Inter Airport Services, have obtained a long-term licence to launch ground handling business activities at Costa Rica’s airports of Juan Santamaria, in San Jose and Daniel Oduber, in Liberia from 1 November. The two Costa Rican airports handled 3.8 million passengers, some 40,000 flights and over 78,000 tonnes of cargo in 2008.

The partners will be offering ramp and passenger services including executive aviation, fueling and aircraft maintenance with later possibilities of expanding into the cargo handling sector, which for the time being, will continue to be managed independently by IAS’ parent company, Interexpresso, an established cargo handler in Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala and Nicaragua, Swissport said in a statement.