The company Alterra Partners is set to sell its shares in the San José airport project to Houston Airport System (HAS) after failing to complete its revamp.

“This is the best choice for the company and for the future of the project to modernize the airport,” Alterra's finance director, Alfredo Aguileta, told reporters yesterday.

HAS, according to its Web site, is the fourth-largest airport system in the United States and sixth in the world. Before the Houston giant can land on Tico shores, Costa Rica's aviation authority and comptroller general first must give it the go-ahead.

The revamp for San José's Juan Santamaría International Airport is a $160-million project, of which $40 million is provided by Alterra, according to newswire ACAN-EFE. The remaining funds come from the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group.

Alterra, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bechtel Corp., won the contract in 2001 but its administration has repeatedly run into financial turbulence.

This past February the Costa Rican government said it would give Alterra 60 days to shape up or lose the contract to administer Juan Santamaría.