Santos Dumont Airport

The Santos Dumont Airport is the second major airport serving Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is more of a domestic hub, with Galeão International Airport serving international flights after 2023.

It is one of the ten airports in the country with the most air traffic, and is located adjacent to Rio de Janeiro's financial center. It is named after the Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos Dumont (1873–1932), and is operated by Infraero.

History

thumb|left|The Seaplane terminal on the day of its dedication (November 30, 1936).

thumb|left|[[Panair do Brasil|Panair Terminal in the 1940s]]

thumb|left|Crowds gather in front of the airport during the transport of President [[Getúlio Vargas' body from Rio for burial in São Borja, 26 August 1954]]

thumb|left|View of Santos Dumont in 1971 with [[Varig headquarters]]

thumb|Historic waiting area in 2020

Originally known as Calabouço Airport, the history of the airport can be traced back to the early 1930s. Until that time, the few aircraft equipped with landing gear used the Manguinhos Airport. Seaplanes, which at the time operated the majority of domestic and international flights, used a terminal located at the Calabouço Point, an area known today as the Praça Marechal Âncora. Take-off and landings were made using an area of the Guanabara Bay then known as estirão do Caju (Caju water stretch). It was as a development of the terminal at the Calabouço Point that the Calabouço Airport was created.

In 1934, land was reclaimed from the sea to create the first runway of the airport with a length of . In 1936, the runway was extended to and on 30 November, the airport was officially opened, being named Santos Dumont Airport. The first commercial flight arrived on the same day, a VASP Junkers Ju 52 aircraft flying from São Paulo–Congonhas.

Pan American World Airways and its Brazilian subsidiary Panair do Brasil opened their own terminal for seaplanes in 1937. It features architecture inspired by the Panamerican Seaplane Base and Terminal Building in Miami. It remained the headquarters of Panair do Brasil until the airline was forced to cease its operations in 1965. It is now the headquarters of the Third Regional Air Command of the Brazilian Air Force.

On 21 May 1959 a formal agreement between Varig, Cruzeiro do Sul, and VASP created an air shuttle service (), the first of its kind in the world. This service operated between the Santos Dumont Airport and the São Paulo–Congonhas and comprised regular hourly departures, common check-in counter, and simplified tickets. The service was an instant success. Transbrasil joined the partnership in 1968. Starting in 1975 the service was operated exclusively by Varig's Lockheed L-188 Electra propjets. In 1999 this service came to an end because airlines decided to operate their own independent services.

With the gradual shift of international operations to the Galeão Airport, opened in 1952, the Santos Dumont airport lost its place as an international hub, and then lost its place as the most important domestic hub in 1960, when the capital of Brazil was moved to Brasília.

The airport handles only part of Rio's short-to-medium haul domestic air traffic, and part of its general aviation and military operations. The airport is famous for having some of the shortest runways on which some Boeing and Airbus aircraft can land. An idea of these operations is given in the 007–James Bond film Moonraker of 1979, in which a Lockheed L-188 Electra briefly appears taking-off from the airport.

thumb|The new terminal building opened in 2007 and handles all departures.

The airport was heavily damaged in a fire on 13 February 1998, which kept the airport closed until 15 August 1998.

On 3 September 2009, the operational standards were adjusted; the airport would close between 23:00 and 06:00 hours, and the maximum number of flights per hour was reduced from 23 to 19, being one of the five airports with such restrictions in Brazil.

thumb|Boarding area in 2019

On 31 August 2009, Infraero unveiled a BRL152.2 million (US$80.2 million; EUR64.5 million) investment plan to upgrade Santos Dumont Airport, particularly the passenger arrivals terminal. The plan focused on the preparations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which was held in Brazil and Rio de Janeiro being one of the venue cities, and the 2016 Summer Olympics. The renovation was completed in 2013.

Whilst this airport is quite conveniently located very close to the city centre, the location is problematic because aircraft have Sugarloaf Mountain on the direct approach path; this means that aircraft have to negotiate the mountainous terrain beyond the two runways by either:<br>a. flying over the bay entrance, then quickly swerving behind Sugarloaf on to the runway glide path, or<br>b. fly over central Rio and negotiate the mountainous terrain not just around Sugarloaf, but also around the central west of Rio.

A highlight of the Santos Dumont Airport is the modern departure lounge, the first in the country to be completely covered with transparent material, which provides a wide view of the Guanabara Bay, where it is possible to see tourist attractions such as the Rio-Niterói Bridge, the Fiscal Island, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the city of Niterói, the Naval School and the Sugarloaf Mountain.

The Santos Dumont Airport was the secondary airport of Rio de Janeiro, the much larger Galeão–Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport being the primary facility until 2019. In 2020 positions inverted and in 2022 the Santos Dumont was accounting for approximately 63% of the total traffic of Greater Rio de Janeiro, spread into three airports. In 2022 Santos Dumont reached 10,178,502 transported passengers whereas Galeão had only 5,895,257. In order to control and revert this abnormal trend, on August 10, 2023 the Civil Aviation National Council issued an order to restrict Santos Dumont services to airports located within 400km maximum from Rio de Janeiro and without international services. The resolution came into force on 1 January 2024 and was considered to be provisory, until a balance was reached. Airlines started cancelling and/or moving services to the Galeão in September 2023. Using the opportunity of reduced traffic, the same resolution authorized the upgrade works of Runway End Safety Areas applying engineered materials arrestor system. Following resistance from the international aviation community, on 8 November 2023 these restrictions were reversed and replaced by an annual cap of 6,5 million passengers starting in 2024.

Airlines and destinations

thumb|right|Aerial view of the airport