The strike of air traffic controllers at the Juan Santamaria Airport in Costa Rica caused the delay of at least seven flights since 6 a.m. Thursday morning.

According to AERIS, company in charge of the operation of the airport the flights affected are from airlines Delta, AA, United and Condor.

The air traffic controllers strike obeys to a dispute between the labor union and the General Directorate of Migration; the labor union requests a change to article 164 of the Migration Law which establishes that air traffic controllers are responsible of ensuring that all travelers comply with migratory requisites or they could face a fine of $10,000.00.

According to Rolando Richmond from Civil Aviation, this is an old problem and the proposal to change the article was presented since August 2017, however it has not been addressed by the Legislative Assembly.

Passengers have had to wait in the planes until the controllers authorize the airplanes’ take off.