Airports and government initiate a countdown for the first test before the World Cup 2014

Besides reinforcing personal and considerably increasing the number of vacancies for aircraft, part of the works in structure and new equipment have begun operating for the Confederations Cup all over the country.

The first major test of the Brazilian airport system happens between June 15and 30, with the Confederations Cup. The government forecast that over 335 thousand passengers will pass through eight airports in the country (Brasilia, Galeão, Santos Dumont, Recife, Pampulha, Confins, Fortaleza and Salvador) during the Games, marks the beginning of the countdown to the modernization and expansion projects of airport infrastructure in the country before the World Cup 2014.

In April, SAC (Department of Civil Aviation) has announced a 77% increase of the public agencies teams which operate at airports such as the Federal Police, Revenue and ANAC (National Civil Aviation Agency). In addition to it, in order to accommodate all the aircraft that will land in Brazil during the Confederations Cup, Conaero has mapped all airports and airbases nearby the host cities for the aircraft to park. The plan stipulates a 140% increase of 140% in the number of vacancies for the planes, the equivalent of 1,153 new vacancies distributed among the main airports and smaller terminals in the places nearby the host cities.

ANAC will present part of the actions of their teams working at airports for the Confederations Cup at the 3rd edition of Airport Infra Expo / Aviation Expo, International Exhibition of the airport infrastructure and commercial aviation industry, which will be held between May 22 and 24, at Transamerica Expo Center in Sao Paulo. The strategies defined by the agency for this first event already consider the benefits of part of the modernization and infrastructure works planned for the World Cup 2014, such as new terminals and equipment to speed up the shipment and ensure passenger comfort.

Infraero (Brazilian Company of Airport Infrastructure), on the other hand, which will also be present at the event, plans to invest R$ 1.808 billion at their airports this year. From this amount, over 83% will be invested in the engineering and equipment services in the airport complexes, most of them located in 12 host cities of the games. By 2014, the investments must reach about R $ 5.6 billion.

Demand Support - One of the largest private terminals of the country, Guarulhos International Airport, in São Paulo, also participates in Airport Infra Expo / Aviation Expo. The airport complex is the one which concentrates the most investment and where a number of structural repairs are being completed. The concessionaire GRU Airport, which manages the airport, will invest about R$ 6 billion over the concession period, until 2032. "The investments are mainly related to the new passenger terminal (TPS3), the parking garage, the reform and extension of runways, and retrofit of Terminals 1 and 2, access roads and internal improvements in the current structure," states GRU Airport CEO, Antônio Miguel.

The airport manager has announced a series of actions in order to ease passenger’s flow, which includes the expansion of areas of national and international shipping, purchase of safety equipment, new baggage belts among others. In 2012, 32 million passengers went through Cumbica and is estimated to be over 35 million by the end of 2013