Nature Air


Nature Air was an airline based in San José, Costa Rica. It operated scheduled international and domestic services, as well as regional charter services. Its main base was Juan Santamaría International Airport, San José. It was the world's first carbon neutral airline. In 2017, all 10 passengers and both crew members aboard Nature Air Flight 9916 were killed in a crash shortly after takeoff. All operations were indefinitely suspended on May 2, 2018.

History

The airline was founded in 1990 as Travel Air. In 2000 a tourism consulting company called Naturegate remodeled the airline together with a group of Costa Rican aviation experts and renamed it Nature Air.
In 2004 they became the World's first Carbon Neutral airline through a government certified carbon offsetting program. The airline tallies total tons of carbon released from the fuel burned each year in flight and ground operations then donates funds to FONAFIFO, a forest financing division of the Environment Ministry, to preserve important tracts of rainforest land in the Osa Peninsula.
To improve fuel efficiency a total of 7%, the airline optimized flight schedules, routes, in-flight procedures, and minimized taxi time on runways. Aerotica, a division of Nature Air, produces biodiesel fuel that is used in 90% of the company's ground vehicles and generators. The fuel is made from recycled vegetable oils collected from employees, local hotels, and restaurants.
The airline also funds the NatureKids Foundation, a non-profit organization that focuses on providing language and computing education in the regions Nature Air flies to.
The General Directorate of Civil Aviation of Costa Rica indefinitely suspended the operating permit to the airline “Nature Air” on May 2, 2018. The reason was the abandonment of its routes and inability to achieve safety standards.

Destinations

Note: All operations were indefinitely suspended on May 2, 2018.
Nature Air operates services to the following scheduled destinations:
Domestic
International
In January 2018, the Nature Air fleet consisted of the following aircraft:
AircraftIn servicePassengers
Cessna 208B Grand Caravan212
Total2

A third Cessna 208B crashed on 31 December 2017. Nature Air's four Let L-410 Turbolets were repossessed in 2017 due to non-payment of their lease.

Incidents and accidents

The following major incidents and accidents have occurred on flights operated by Nature Air:
They are currently grounded but are still booking flights through their website and not fulfilling them.