Galeão and Santos Dumont may have a boat line – 08/18/2023 – Market

Rio City Hall wants to use Guanabara Bay to facilitate the access and departure of passengers from the Tom Jobim International Airport, known as Galeão, which has been emptied in recent years.

The idea of ​​the municipal administration is that the opening of a waterway line connects Galeão to the other major airport in Rio, Santos Dumont.

The project is still in the technical and economic feasibility studies phase, but the city hall plans to define the service concessionaire by the first half of 2024, according to the municipal secretary of Government Coordination, Jorge Arraes.

He claims that the vessels would travel between the airports, across Guanabara Bay, in less than 20 minutes. The service could serve, for example, those who want to go to Galeão from the tourist attractions in the south zone or the central region of Rio, which are closer to Santos Dumont.

The estimated duration of a car trip between the two terminals is usually over 20 minutes, especially during periods of congestion.

Less than 20 kilometers separate Galeão from Santos Dumont. The international airport is on Ilha do Governador, in the north zone. Santos Dumont, which only operates domestic flights, is located in the central region of the city.

“It is important that we have one more alternative to connect to Galeão airport”, says Arraes.

The plan comes amid expectations for the implementation of restrictions on flights in Santos Dumont. Defended by the city hall and the state government, the measure seeks to direct more domestic flights to Galeão.

Three groups expressed interest in developing feasibility studies for the creation of the waterway line. According to the city hall, the deadline for submitting the documents is until the 19th of October.

From then on, technicians from the municipality should work on analyzing the proposals. The bidding process for choosing the service concessionaire would be opened afterwards.

“After receiving the studies and carrying out the technical screening, we have to bid for the concession. Our plan is to have this contracted by the first half of next year”, says Arraes.

“By hiring the company, it will buy the fleet of boats, build the pier on both sides. Once hired, it will have an implementation schedule”, he adds.

Ticket prices have yet to be defined, as well as the type of vessel that can be used. According to city hall plans, the Santos Dumont station will be installed in a stretch of Marina da Glória close to the Bossa Nova Mall, which is next to the airport.

“The most important definition is the type of vessel”, says Arraes. According to him, the route in the bay brings draft limitations (part of a boat that is submerged).

“What can be said is that they won’t be boats like the ones that transport Rio-Niterói. It’s not a boat that size. It’s smaller.”

Galeão and Santos Dumont star in a soap opera that has been dragging on since the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government. The reason is the emptying of the international airport, intensified during the pandemic.

With the crisis in Galeão, political and business leaders in Rio started to pressure the Union for restrictions on flights in Santos Dumont. This month, the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) gave a favorable signal to this plan.

On the 10th, a resolution signed by Minister Márcio França (Ports and Airports) determined that Santos Dumont be restricted to flights with a distance of up to 400 kilometers from the destination or origin, considering only airports on domestic routes.

This includes the terminals at Congonhas, in São Paulo, and Pampulha, in Belo Horizonte. The other domestic flights involving Rio, outside the radius of up to 400 kilometers, would be directed to Galeão. The determination must be adopted from January 2, 2024.

Santos Dumont must also undergo work to implement escape areas on the runway, aiming at operational safety, since the terminal is physically limited by Guanabara Bay, said the Ministry of Ports and Airports.

Vessel does not solve all of Galeão’s problem, says analyst

Marcus Quintella, director of the FGV Transportes study center, has reservations when analyzing the waterway connection project between the Rio de Janeiro terminals.

“It’s medium to low capacity transport. It won’t completely solve Galeão’s problem. It depends on weather conditions, on traffic management in Guanabara Bay”, he says.

The researcher says that the proposal also needs to identify possible road impacts for the installation of passenger boarding and disembarking stations.

“It is necessary to better understand the project to simulate demand, the interval between vessels. There are several aspects.”

the carioca airports

Santos Dumont is located next to businesses installed in the center of Rio and close to tourist attractions such as the Sugarloaf Mountain and the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema, in the south zone. Its infrastructure, however, is smaller than that of Galeão.

The international terminal also plays a relevant role in the state’s cargo transport. Some users, however, usually complain about greater difficulty in accessing Galeão compared to Santos Dumont.

These complaints have resurfaced amid the debate over restrictions at the hub airport. Access to Galeão is via routes such as the Linha Vermelha. Passengers mention traffic jams and point out a feeling of insecurity due to cases of urban violence in the region.

For the leaders of Rio, the emptying of the international airport would not have been driven by these factors. According to this view, the condition would be associated in part with the swelling of Santos Dumont after the pandemic.