One of our members was flying this past April from Belize to Panama and planned to make a fuel stop in Limon, Costa Rica (MRLM). The San Jose approach controller told the member that Limon no longer had immigration nor fuel and forced him to divert to the Tobias Bolaños airport in San Jose-Pavas, Costa Rica.

We have checked with the director of the airport in Limon and confirmed that this information is INCORRECT. The airport continues to operate as an international airport, has both Jet-A and AVGAS and is open from 06:00 to 18:00 local time 7 days-a-week as published in the Caribbean Sky Tours Pilots Guide to Mexico and Central America (P 216). If you plan to fly to Limon, you are urged to call them at +506 2758 1379 or email them at limoninternacional@yahoo.com to confirm arrival time so that they can make sure that everything is ready for your arrival.

If you run into this situation, query the controller as to where they got their information. It is always possible that there may be a unique one-time emergency that could close an airport and this is usually published in a NOTAM. However, in this case it was just bad information that caused the member to waste time flying to an airport that was not convenient for his flight.

Rick Gardner
Caribbean Sky Tours