A few weeks ago, the small Costa Rican airline, Nature Air, had a well-publicized crash that killed 12 people.  Since then the authorities have suspended the airline’s operating license and I have discovered that, apparently, several of its airplanes were repossessed in the fall when it failed to pay the leases (link). This paints a rather grim picture of the current state of Nature Air.

Our Nature Air flight was scheduled for February 4th, in just three weeks.  The flight was to take us from San José to Puerto Jimenez, on the Osa Peninsula. With the news of these events and the knowledge that the airline had lost 1/3rd of its remaining fleet, needless to say, we had to change our travel plans.

Unfortunately, Nature Air has no online booking management platform so I can’t cancel the tickets online.  Their personnel have been less than receptive to my e-mail requests for a refund, saying that they hope to be flying again next week, as if this should somehow make us feel safe. It is also noteworthy that, having lost 5 of the 7 aircraft it had when I booked our trip (4 through repossession, 1 crash), the airline’s ability to operate reliably will presumably be severely challenged.

On my two previous trips to Costa Rica, I have flown internally on Sansa, a subsidiary of TACA and now Avianca.  I chose Sansa because I have a general principle that one should fly on established airlines and avoid small airlines, whenever possible.  I broke my rule on this occasion because Nature Air had a good record when I booked and the airplanes they were using on our flight were twin engine Let-410s, which I was hoping would give us a more comfortable ride out of San José airport, which I usually find quite windy.

We will be flying Sansa again.

More to follow…