This is the most important airport for general aviation in Costa Rica. It's also the base for small charter companies and regional airlines like TravelAir (now known as NatureAir) and others. It's located in the town of Pavas, at the west side of San Jose.

Named after a costarrican aviation pioneer: Mr Tobias Bolaños. He was born in Santo Domingo de Heredia, and his dream was to become a pilot. On May 1st, 1913, french pilot Maurius Terce made some aerial demostrations to celebrate "Labor Day" and further encouraged the young Bolaños to be a pilot. By the beggining of the I World War, Tobias Bolaños lived in France, learning the secrets of aeronautics, aviation mechanics and flying. As a consecuence of those lessons, he lost his right leg on an accident in 1915. He came back to Costa Rica with a wooden leg and started negotiations with foreign goverments to bring a plane to this country. By the end of the 20's, it's dream came true: the Mexican Goverment donated an airplane. The plane was named "Juan Santamaria" and of course, Tobias Bolaños was the only costarrican qualified to fly it so on December 19th, 1929 he became the first costarrican to fly in his own country. He flew for an hour and then landed on a tree at the end of the "La Sabana" park.

The airport started costruction between 1954 and 1955 to act as a relief airport for the La Sabana airport, wich was too close to San Jose. In 1958 the airport was ready.

 

The Runway:

It has only one runway, but with very peculiar caracteristics. It's located between a highly populated area and a 600-foot deep canyon. So the approach is no piece of cake here. Adding to that, the runway is not completely leveled. It has positive level on both sides (09 and 27), making almost imposible to see the other end of the runway if you are taking off. the runway is 1000m long by 19m wide

Runway 09:
Usable Lenght: 3300ft - 1000m
Width: 57ft - 19m
Approach Lights: VASI

Runway 27:
Usable Lenght: 3300ft - 1000m
Width: 57ft - 19m
Approach Lights: none

 

The Pictures:

 

	Aerial view from the East
Close up to the Control Tower
	VASI lights on runway 09

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