Rio+20 to restrict traffic at Galeão airport

05/26/2012 - 14h13

The government is considering the partial shutdown of air traffic at the Galeão international airport during the Rio+20 conference.

Folha found that the airport could be closed on June 20 and 23 from 4 p.m. to midnight in order to receive the flights of more than 100 heads of state who are expected to participate in the conference.

This measure would effectively require cancelling about 100 domestic flights, affecting 15,000 passengers-6,000 from TAM and 9,000 from Gol and Webjet. International flights would not be affected.

There has never been a restriction of this magnitude on airspace. During the elimination round of the Brazil Cup last July, the Santos Dumont airport, also in Rio, was closed for a few hours, but flights were transferred to Galeão.

During the Panamerican games in Rio 2007, there were airspace restrictions over Maracanã, but it was not necessary to cancel flights. Twenty years ago, during Eco-92, the airspace sector was not nearly as busy at it is now, and Galeão was not in use.

Closing the airport, which today receives many connecting flights, will impact the whole country with delays and redirections. Including international flights, 45,000 passengers a day pass through this airport.

Airlines have a small margin for transferring flights to Santos Dumont, which has limited capacity to handle planes of a certain size.

Companies also worry about shouldering the costs of room and board, in addition to possible legal proceedings.

When consulted, the Civil Aviation Secretary said that the plan is still not formalized and said that Galeão will not be closed.

However, airlines and related businesses were informed on Friday of the necessity to redirect flights. According to Snea, the union of airline companies, businesses are already working on redirecting flights.

Folha found that the decision to close air traffic at Galeão was made by President Dilma Rousseff herself in a meeting on Monday at the Casa Civil.

The president heard arguments from the Department of Airspace Control (Decea) and entrusted the coordination of the operation to this agency.

Closing the airspace has less to do with airspace capacity and more to do with the security of the heads of state.

Any aircraft is flying close to the plane of a head of state is seen as a potential threat, which led the agency to consider closing the airspace.

Besides canceling flights, Infraero, the government-owned company responsible for the operation of airports, decided that 120 parking spaces at the airport would need to be reserved for the planes of the heads of state.

Translated by ANNA EDGERTON