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Study Forecasts New Airport Crisis in Brazil as of 2020
05/28/2013 - 08h21
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RICARDO MIOTO
FROM SÃO PAULO
Brazil will suffer a second airport bottleneck in the 2020s, after the World Cup and the Olympics.
Today, the problems are mainly in the boarding terminals. Ten of Brazil's main airports have such areas saturated.
There is also an overloaded runway: in Congonhas airport. A new study by FGV (Getúlio Vargas Fundation) shows the problem will spread. The Viracopos runway is likely to reach its limit by 2020. From then on, the situation will worsen: by 2030, another ten airports in the country's main capitals will need investments on their runways.
That is because Brazil's current "air chaos" isn't exactly in the air, but on the ground, in the boarding areas. The average number of landings and takeoffs every hour is low: 38 - the global average is 88. The tendency is for Brazil's figures to reach the international average in time.
In 2002, Brazil had only 36 million boarding passengers. In 2012, they reached 101 million, but specialists say that number is still low for a country of 200 million inhabitants.
The U.S. has a population of 300 million and 650 million boarding passengers a year. FGV believes Brazil will have 195 million passengers in 2020 and 312 million in 2030.
In that scenario, Brazilian airports will require an investment of some R$ 30 billion (US$ 14.6 billion) by 2030 to be adapted.
Gesner Oliveira, the head of the study, says agility in the new concessions is necessary to avoid a second major airport failure after the sporting events. "Also, if only one group controls the main airports, there will be neither competition nor service quality."
Translated by THOMAS MUELLO