The Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Alerj) sent, on Monday (08/11), a document to the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) requesting that Santos Dumont Airport be transferred to the State Government to carry out the concession process.
DIn this way, Santos Dumont Airport will receive treatment equivalent to that adopted in relation to Pampulha Airport, in Minas Gerais.
The initiative intends to avoid emptying the Antônio Carlos Jobim International Airport (Galeão), which could lose flights if there is competition between the two main terminals in Rio de Janeiro, especially in relation to international destinations.
“We are not against the Santos Dumont concession. Now, we cannot break our international airport and not have our hub. We need to use the political power of the state. They are committing a crime by transferring Galeão flights to increase the concession at the Santos Dumont auction. It is not possible to make an airport viable with a runway of 1,3 meters when we have runways of 3,2 to 4. Transferring flights to Santos Dumont is breaking Galeão”, said the president of Alerj, deputy André Ceciliano (PT).
The Federal Government gave approval for the government of Minas Gerais to carry out the Pampulha auction. CCR, which also manages Confins airport, won the dispute. In this way, Pampulha was left with regional and small flights, while Confins continued with international operations.
In a public hearing promoted by Alerj, last month, Ceciliano brought together deputies from the state and federal benches, senators, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes; and directors of entities such as the Commercial Association of Rio de Janeiro (ACRJ), the Federation of Trade in Goods and Services of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Fecomércio), the Federation of Industries of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Firjan) and the Association of Industries of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Rio Indústria), defended the maintenance of the Galeão as an international hub without “predatory competition” between terminals.
The privatization model proposed by the Federal Government provides for the transfer of international flights from Galeão to Santos Dumont. In Ceciliano's understanding, the change will have a negative impact on the state's economy.
The proposal presented by Alerj advocates that Santos Dumont host flights from the Rio-São Paulo, Rio-Brasília, executive aviation e of connections with airports in the country that are within a radius of 500km from the city of Rio de Janeiro.
“We also need to that 90% of Galeão's operations are related to cargo movement, an activity with potential for expansion. The terminal is also highly attractive to companies that provide services and products, such as aircraft maintenance workshops. With the reduction in the number of landings, these companies will migrate to other states. In addition, we do not have an airport like Galeão, it ends up making the oil company sector unfeasible”, reinforced Ceciliano.
The document sent by Alerj informs that, according to the current concession model, Santos Dumont would increase enger traffic from 10,1 million engers in 2023 to 14,6 million engers in 2052, an increase of almost 50%.
This, however, is the same level that Galeão had before the pandemic, which in 2019 ed a movement of 14 million engers/year, against a movement of 10 million engers/year on Santos Dumont.
Street: ALERJ
