Last Tuesday, the 27th, the mayor of Araguaína (TO), Wagner Rodrigues, met with the directors of Gol Linhas Aéreas, at Congonhas airport, and received the indication that the company will resume operating flights in Araguaína in 2024. The new route is expected to begin operating between October and November this year, with a daily flight to and from Brasília.
In addition to GOL, Azul Linhas Aéreas was also another company that gave the green light to operate in the city, which currently only has regular flights from VOE to Brasília. GOL is expected to announce the start of ticket sales between the months of June and July.
For the municipality, the meeting was attended by the mayor, the executive secretary of Economic Development and Environment, Hélter Dantas, and the director of Esaero Aeroportos, Tony Mesquita. For Gol, the director of Air Network Planning and Infrastructure, Rafael Araújo; the Malha Strategic Planning manager, Bruno Balan; and the Planning and Infrastructure consultant, Matheus Motta.
Flights to Brasilia
According to the company's pre-planning, the plane that will operate in Araguaína must be a Boeing 737-800 with capacity for 186 engers. The idea is that the flight to Brasília is late in the morning, at 5 am, and the return flight is at 22 pm.
Airport modernization
Carried out in partnership with the federal government via SAC (Civil Aviation Secretariat), the airport's modernization and qualification project is budgeted at R$40 million and is in the final phase of the stage necessary to receive medium and large aircraft, such as used by Gol and Azul.
At the beginning of 2024, SAC authorized the city hall to begin installing the PAPI (Precision Approach Path Indicator). The installation of EPTA, a device that assists in aircraft navigation, depends on the approval of the project and release from the Integrated Center for Air Defense and Air Traffic Control, which requested the Municipality a period of 30 days to analyze the documentation already sent by the City Hall. . In total, the installation of equipment, testing and release of SAC takes 90 days.
Araguaína City Council has already completed the drainage, cleaning of the airport's security area with the removal and pruning of trees, leveling the runway thresholds and lateral plant protection with the planting of grass.
After the installation of navigation aid equipment, Araguaína will have all the conditions to return to flights with large aircraft. Today, the city is a reference within a radius of 250 kilometers and has a total population of 2 million inhabitants. With this, the new companies will have the opportunity to transport engers from the south of Pará, south of Maranhão and north of Tocantins.
In addition to the installation of equipment that assists aircraft navigation, the subsequent stages of the airport's modernization works include the completion of the project that includes internal structures, such as a new parking lot, new hangar area, a turning area, in addition to reinforcing on the runway, restructuring and expansion of the enger terminal to more than 2 thousand square meters and renovation of the fire protection section.
Read also
- LATAM Brasil and Turkish Airlines expand shared route network
- American Airlines is expected to place a large order for narrowbody aircraft soon
- United Kingdom opens tender to purchase new military helicopter
With information: City Hall of Araguaina
