Over $880 million to be invested in Rio airport by 2016

The concessionaire to take charge in August of Carlos Jobim International Airport, also known as Galeão, in Rio de Janeiro, has announced investments of $880 million to be made before the 2016 Olympics. The concession contract was signed on Wednesday (Apr. 2) by the National Civil Aviation Agency (“Anac”) and the Rio de Janeiro Airport Consortium, made up of companies Odebrecht TransPort, Changi Airport and state-run airport operator Infraero.

Investments encompass the construction of 26 jet bridges, the expansion of the airport apron and the installation of 68 new check-in desks, adding up to the existing 227.

Concessionaire President Luiz Rocha stated, “a number of improvements will be felt by customers as of the end of the year.” Some of the smaller improvements, he says, will be noticeable before the World Cup, scheduled to begin on June 12.

According to Civil Aviation Secretary Wellington Moreira Franco, the airport is ready to serve the Brazilian public appropriately: “What we need today is a great intervention, with improvements in services regarded as small but crucial for [the airport] to function properly, such as the quality of washrooms, better food courts, and escalators in good working condition.”

By 2038, when the concession terminates, investments are estimated to total $2.2 billion and the number of passengers per year to go from 17 million to 60 million.

During the signing ceremony, President Dilma Rousseff said she expects the concession to raise Galeão to the level of Singapore’s Changi Airport, which ranks among the best airports in the world. The president also pointed out that the recent growth in Brazil’s middle class has increased the need for flight tickets, and the concession of the airport in Rio de Janeiro to the private enterprise is crucial to meeting the new demand.

Rousseff was happy to noted that Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes got their inspiration to write the song Samba do Avião (Airplane Samba) from the same airport. She regards the song as a “tribute to exiles” from the country’s dark years of military regime. “It describes perfectly the feeling of homesickness, and what it feels like to remember Brazil and, above all, to return to Brazil through Galeão.”

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira