Brazil and Costa Rica sign open skies agreement

Share108 Marvin Barquero S. mbarquero@nacion.com 10:46 a.m. 24/02/2011

San Jose (Editor). Costa Rica and Brazil signed on Tuesday an agreement that allows the launching of flights as often as needed in both countries’ airspace.

The international policy, known as "open skies", allows each of the contracting countries to uphold their immigration and aviation laws, despite the ease of operation for the carriers.

In this case, the agreement allows Brazilian flag carriers to operate routes to Costa Rican territory, to carry out flight stopovers from third countries or to transfer passengers. Costa Rican aviation companies will have the same rights in Brazil

The negotiation was led by Costa Rican Civil Aviation Technical Council (CETAC) and the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT)

This agreement encourages the operation of flights with the largest market in Latin America, allowing free number and frequency of flights and free ridership.

The country has signed “open skies” agreements with other countries such as the U.S. and Chile.

A total of 4.4 million of the 192 million Brazilians traveled abroad last year. This number is expected to grow because Brazil is one of the economies that according to a statement distributed today by the ICT will grow the most in the world in the coming years.