According to the mayor of Rio, fewer flights at Santos Dumont airport would avoid emptying the other airport in Rio
The mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes (PSD), said this Saturday (8.Apr.2023) that he cannot “to allow that the [aeroporto] Galleon be destroyed”. For him, the terminal has lost space for Santos Dummont.
Paes assesses that the Tom Jobim International Airport, Galeão, should receive more domestic flights to reduce emptying. “Rio, to be Rio, needs an international airport”he stated.
Watch (1min27s):
Cariocas, unite! This Galeão conversation is very serious! No more losing vocations! pic.twitter.com/o7JNYSnBoI
— Eduardo Paes (@eduardopaes) April 8, 2023
This is not the first time the mayor has spoken out on the issue. after the minister Marcio França (Ports and Airports) stated that the government is studying plans to avoid the emptying of Galeão, Paes praised him.
The biggest airport in Rio has lost ground to Santos Dumont, which only operates domestic flights. In 2022, there were 5.9 million passengers on Galeão and 10.2 million on Santos Dumont.
The location weighs in favor of the 2nd – it is close to the center of Rio, while the Galeão is on Ilha do Governador, forcing disembarking passengers to cross the Linha Vermelha, one of the most violent roadways in the capital of Rio de Janeiro.
Santos Dumont also concentrates flights on the air bridge with São Paulo, the route with the highest demand in the country. This has caused delays in flights between Brazil’s largest cities, as Rio’s airport has been operating above its capacity to meet demand.
According to survey of AirHelp29% of landings and takeoffs on the route suffered delays in the 1st bimester of 2023 – there had been 7% in the previous year.
One of the alternatives for Secretary of Civil Aviation, subordinated to the Ministry of Ports and Airports, is to migrate routes that overload Santos Dumont to Galeão, which today clings to international flights and less attractive routes and schedules.
In this week, the Infraero expanded the capacity of Santos Dumont to 15.3 million passengers – an increase of 55% over the 9.9 million previously certified by the administrator.
This increase is only in numbers, since plans for the operational expansion of the airport were not announced. The announcement was made after last year’s total passengers (10.2 million) indicated overload.
Even a transfer of part of these passengers to Galeão should not be enough for the international airport to reach the projections made by anac (National Civil Aviation Agency).
In 2014, with the sale of hub for the private sector, the agency projected that the number of passengers would reach 60 million per year by 2038 – the last year of the concession.
Currently, the airport is managed by the Concessionaire RioGaleãowhich has Infraero with a 49% share.
In 2012, Galeão received 17.5 million passengers a year. taking the boom provoked by the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, the number did not grow again.
Two episodes involving Brazilian airlines helped reduce the flow of passengers on Galeão. The 1st was involving the Bluefounded in 2008, which from the beginning wanted to invest in Santos Dumont.
The government of Rio, then headed by Sergio Cabral, intervened and tried to force the company to operate on Galeão, arguing that operations were limited on Santos Dumont. At the time, an ordinance restricted the registration of new flights at the regional airport to small and turboprop aircraft. Azul appealed to Justice and revoked the ordinance.
Another blow was the bankruptcy of Avianca Brasil, which stopped flying in 2019. The Brazilian arm of the Colombian company had Galeão as one of its operational centers.
Competition from the international network with Guarulhos Airport is yet another problem. Most global airlines prioritize the center of São Paulo, which uses 2 terminals for international routes.
In the 1st bimester of 2023 alone, Guarulhos has already surpassed Galeão’s handling throughout 2022. There were 6.5 million passengers. In 2022, São Paulo’s international airport received 34.4 million travelers, more than twice as many as the 2 airports in Rio.
São Paulo is a success story that should be explored by the federal and Rio de Janeiro governments. In addition to Guarulhos, the largest city in Latin America also operates via Congonhas, which in 2022 received 18 million passengers. It is proof that 2 airports can coexist without overloading one of them.
#destruction #Galeão #Eduardo #Paes