The mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, and the governor of the eponymous state, Cláudio Castro, have mooted taking legal measures to drive traffic to the Tom Jobim International Airport, also known as Galeão.
Located on the Ilha do Governador to the north of the city, Rio’s Galeão airport has been steadily losing passengers in recent years. Meanwhile, the Santos Dumont domestic airport, located near downtown Rio and affording breathtaking views of the city upon takeoff or landing, is overstretched. More than 10 million passengers transited through Santos Dumont airport last year, compared with less than six million in Galeão — which has the capacity to receive 37 million passengers a year.
“The problem is not one of security, or distance. The problem is that one airport is cannibalizing the other,” Governor Castro said during an event held in Rio this Monday to discuss the city’s airport conundrum.
On their way out of the event, Messrs. Paes and Castro said legal measures could be taken locally to reduce the number of flights and passengers at Santos Dumont, to the benefit of Galeão.
Re-establishing a balance between Rio’s two airports is an ongoing point of discussion between municipal, state, and federal authorities. Rio authorities defend joint management of the Galeão and Santos Dumont concessions, arguing that this would increase efficiency.
Earlier this month, Infraero, the state-owned corporation that operates Santos Dumont, spoke of increasing the domestic airport’s capacity from 9.9 million passengers currently to 15.3 million, prompting immediate pushback from Mr. Paes.
Meanwhile, Changi, the controlling company of airport operator RIOgaleão, announced last year that it would return control of Rio’s international airport to the Brazilian federal government. The Singapore-based group backtracked in February this year but is now looking to renegotiate the terms of the concession.
Messrs. Paes and Castro are due to meet with the federal government’s ports and airports minister, Márcio França, in Brasília this Tuesday to discuss the future of Rio’s two main airports.
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