As of January 2024, Santos Dumont Airport in Rio de Janeiro will have limitations on its operations and will lose direct flights to important cities such as Brasília and Belo Horizonte (CNF). The new ordinance was signed this Thursday (10th) by the Minister of Ports and Airports, Márcio França.

Together with President Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva and the mayor of Rio de Janeiro Eduardo Paes, the document signed through a resolution by the Civil Aviation Council (CONAC) aims to resume a greater flow of flights at Galeão International Airport.

Galeão has fallen short in the number of domestic flights compared to Santos Dumont, which is better located but is limited due to the size of the airport. The new ordinance determines that only flights within a maximum distance of 400 km, thus removing flights to Brasília and Belo Horizonte through Confins Airport.

The new measure had its proposal changed after the speech of Mayor Eduardo Paes in June, who stated that the Rio de Janeiro terminal would only have flights to Congonhas and Brasília. 

"We asked a lot in the Bolsonaro government and it was not answered, and today the president (Lula) decided that he will do it. From then on, we will decide on the date, but the Santos Dumont airport will only be used for the Rio-São Paulo/Congonhas and Rio-Brasília airlift. And Rio de Janeiro International Airport is once again receiving the domestic flights it has always had“, said the mayor at the time.

Now, Santos Dumont should have flights only to Congonhas, Pampulha and Vitória in Espirito Santo, something that pleased the authorities in Rio de Janeiro, also excluding flights to Guarulhos in São Paulo. Initially, the idea would be to limit the flow of passengers in the terminal to up to 10 million, but it was considered a large volume for Santos Dumont and without the adequate amount to transfer flights to Galeão.

The GOL and LATAM companies have already announced adjustments to their networks, when the initial deadline would be for the month of October. 

Negotiations to 'revive' Galeão for domestic flights also impact on concessions, as the Federal Government studied various measures so that the two airports in Rio de Janeiro were together in a block awarded without one jeopardizing the other in terms of offers and availability. 

“It makes no sense for Galeão Airport to be paralyzed because people, for convenience, prefer to leave Santos Dumont. Galeão was built to be the international airport, to be the gateway for any foreigner who wanted to come to Brazil to stop here at Galeão”, President Lula said in a press conference this Thursday (10).

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With information from Portal G1