Santos Dumont: see links with Congonhas and Brasília – 06/22/2023 – Market

The flights that connect Santos Dumont, in Rio de Janeiro, to Congonhas (SP) and Brasília account for less than half of the passengers who depart or disembark at the airport in Rio today.

This is what data from Anac (National Civil Aviation Agency) for 2022 and 2023 indicate.

Depending on the scenario in the coming months, Congonhas and Brasília will be the only connections available at Santos Dumont, located in the center of Rio.

This may be because the mayor of the Rio de Janeiro capital, Eduardo Paes (PSD), announced last week a plan that intends to restrict operations at the Rio de Janeiro airport to these two routes.

According to Paes, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) accepted the limitation of flights on Santos Dumont.

Thus, the other domestic routes that involve Rio should be concentrated at Galeão airport, in the northern part of the municipality.

Local authorities understand that the measure is necessary to reverse the emptying seen in recent years in Galeão.

According to Anac data, Santos Dumont received a total of 9.9 million paid passengers in 2022. The account includes flights to and from the terminal.

In the same period, connections from Rio de Janeiro airport to Congonhas and Brasília, together, handled 4.1 million passengers.

This contingent is equivalent to 41.4% of the total embarked or disembarked at Santos Dumont in 2022 (9.9 million).

Partial data for 2023 indicate a similar scenario. From January to April this year, Santos Dumont received 3.8 million passengers, between departures and arrivals, according to Anac.

In the sum of connections with Congonhas and Brasília, the number of travelers was almost 1.5 million in the same period.

This amount corresponds to 38.9% of the total number of passengers who took off or landed at Santos Dumont from January to April 2023 (3.8 million).

Rio’s central airport only operates domestic flights. It is currently under the administration of the state-owned company Infraero.

Flights involving Congonhas and Brasília are the busiest on Santos Dumont. The air shuttle with the São Paulo terminal, by the way, is the most demanded route in the country.

Infraero analyzes financial viability

A Sheet Infraero said that it follows the guidelines of the federal government and that it is in negotiations with the Ministry of Ports and Airports so that the determinations related to Santos Dumont are fulfilled.

Questioned whether the connections with Congonhas and Brasília would be sufficient to sustain the airport in Rio, the public company stated that the “conclusion of these negotiations will point to the issue of financial sustainability”.

The Minister of Ports and Airports, Márcio França, declared on Monday (19) that the reduction in flights on Santos Dumont will take effect from October. This process would be done gradually.

Mayor talks about improving coordination

In the view of the City of Rio, the restrictions are necessary to improve coordination between the airport and Galeão, increasing the total number of passengers that land or take off in the municipality.

“The world coordinates airports when there are two in the same metropolitan region. If you don’t coordinate, one cannibalizes the other”, says Chicão Bulhões, municipal secretary of Economic Development, Innovation and Simplification of Rio.

“In the past, Santos Dumont was designed for the air shuttle. The airport no longer has the capacity to grow. There is an operational limitation.”

In 2019, in the pre-pandemic period, Santos Dumont received 8.9 million paid passengers, between departures and arrivals, according to Anac.

In the same year, connections with Congonhas and Brasília, together, reached 5.2 million travelers. This amount corresponded to more than half (58%) of the total number of passengers at the Rio de Janeiro airport at the time (8.9 million).

It is a proportion that has not yet been reached after the effects of the pandemic. The expansion of routes at the terminal has been criticized by leaders in Rio.

Bulhões believes that better coordination with Galeão would adjust the supply of flights and reduce the pressure on air ticket prices in the Rio de Janeiro capital.

In the secretary’s view, this could lead to the Santos Dumont-Congonhas air bridge, for example, travelers who started to travel Rio-São Paulo by bus in recent years due to the high price of plane tickets.

In 2022, flights between the two airports handled almost 3 million people, according to Anac. The data was below the approximately 4.1 million of 2019.

Santos Dumont is next to businesses installed in the central region of Rio and closer than Galeão to tourist attractions in the south zone, such as Sugarloaf Mountain and the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema.

Galeão, in turn, is located on Ilha do Governador and has a larger infrastructure, which operates both national and international flights. The terminal also plays a relevant role in the state’s cargo transport.

In 2022, the venture received 5.7 million paid passengers, according to Anac. Over the past decade, however, it registered more than 16 million travelers per year.

For authorities in Rio, with fewer domestic flight options, Galeão is unable to expand its international routes. That would be one of the reasons to restrict Santos Dumont.

Some users, on the other hand, tend to complain about greater difficulty in accessing Galeão. These complaints reappeared on social media last week, following the announcement of a reduction in flights from the domestic terminal.

Access to the international airport is via routes such as the Red Line. Users complain about traffic jams and point out a feeling of insecurity in the region.

Galeão experiences uncertainty amid emptying

The future of Galeão still depends on the resolution of an impasse involving its concessionaire. In 2022, RIOgaleão initiated a request to return the airport. A possible permanence of the concession, however, started to be ventilated in 2023.

The Lula government decided to consult the TCU (Tribunal de Contas da União) about the legal viability of an eventual agreement with the company. RIOgaleão is controlled by Changi, from Singapore.