Congonhas will be able to receive more flights per hour from March 2023

Anac (National Civil Aviation Agency) made an official request from Infraero to expand the capacity of flights in Congonhas. As of March 26, 2023, the airport will be able to operate 44 takeoffs and landings per hour, three more than the current ceiling of 41 movements.

The declaration, published last Monday (5), establishes the new number of so-called slots, which are the authorizations for the arrival and departure of planes. In July, Infraero had requested an increase in this limit as a way of beautifying Congonhas for the concession auction that took place on the 18th.

In a statement, the state-owned company said that the requirement was based on installed capacities after several investments made recently. According to Anac, the capacity assessment considers whether the airport operator is aware of the effects and risks of the changes, and whether it has previously acted to mitigate them.

The request was being evaluated from the point of view of airport infrastructure, not necessarily safety, and involved issues such as a noise plan, mats and runways.

At the time, the request created a rift in the airline industry. This is because the expansion of take-offs and landings conflicts with diverse interests, from residents around the airport —affected by noise and traffic— to airlines, worried about increased competition at the terminal.

Executives of companies opposed to the increase say that the expansion could cause bottlenecks, considering that the current infrastructure does not support a growth in the volume of passengers at peak times.

According to Abear (Associação Brasileira das Empresas Aéreas), it is necessary to make significant investments in the passenger terminal before the expansion, including in items such as boarding bridges, x-ray gantries, remote boarding gates, buses and ambulifts (equipment for passengers with special needs).

“These and other items are necessary for the adequate quality of customer service, especially at this time of resumption of demand and a new dealer taking over operations”, said the entity in a note.

Since the accident with the TAM plane in 2007 — which killed 199 people and turned 15 on July 17 — Congonhas airport has undergone several changes to increase security. One of them was the decrease in the limit of takeoffs and landings, which has reached 50 flights per hour.

In recent years, the terminal has undergone a series of renovations, which have recently started to focus more attractively on the concession auction.

In addition to new escape areas on the main runway —opened in March 2022—, Congonhas underwent improvements in lighting systems, signaling and in the asphalt water drainage system. Infraero also renovated the facade, the boarding bridges and the interior of the airport.

The request for capacity expansion was a way to increase interest in the terminal, which ended up being sold for R$ 2.45 billion by the Spanish group Aena – the only one interested in the auction. The group already manages airports such as those in Recife and Maceió, among other smaller ones that it took over in the 5th round of concessions in 2019.

In February, Anac decided to penalize Aena Brasil for lack of quality in services provided in Recife. Among the failures observed were problems in the systems for processing baggage on boarding and for returning baggage on disembarkation. Another complaint was the poor quality of the air conditioning system.

Like the other airports, Congonhas will be managed by the private sector for 30 years. According to Anac, the forecast is that Aena will invest R$ 3.35 billion in the period, of which R$ 2.53 billion will be invested in expanding the infrastructure in the first five years of the contract.

One of the main terminals in the country, Congonhas receives around 17 million passengers a year. Until 2019, before the pandemic, the airport had a daily movement of 60 thousand passengers and received 590 more flights a day.