This Friday (05/07), the air link between the two most populous cities in the country, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, completes 60 years of uninterrupted activities.
The main protagonists of this story are the Congonhas (SP) and Santos Dumont (RJ) airports, managed by Infraero since the 1980s, whose air connections are among the four busiest on the planet.
Symbols of glamorous, bohemian, or business times, the Rio and São Paulo terminals are now home to more than 26,5 engers a day on the Ponte Aérea, not to mention those traveling to other locations.
Millions of people each year, who are enchanted by the convenience and beauty of arriving in the center of Rio, overlooking the Sugar Loaf and Guanabara Bay, or São Paulo, whose toothpick of buildings and great movement of cars, observed from the small window, they anticipate the frenzy of the city, a few kilometers from the airport.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usPj1wZKDmk
1959: THE AIR BRIDGE IS BORN
The year was 1959. Brazil was governed by President Juscelino Kubitschek and lived under the melody of Bossa Nova. Rio de Janeiro was the federal capital and political and cultural center of the country. São Paulo was already the largest Brazilian city and its importance grew along with its industrial development.
At the end of the 1950s, commercial aviation in Brazil was dominated by Panair, on international flights, and by Real Aerovias, which was gaining ground in the domestic market, operating 15 flights on each leg on the Rio de Janeiro – São Paulo route.
In 1959, the Varig, Cruzeiro do Sul and Vasp airlines got together and decided to create something new together. The proposal was to operate the takeoffs together and, thus, replace almost empty flights of each company with a group profit. Thus was born the Ponte Aérea, on July 5, 1959.
Along with it came the single ticket, which allowed the enger to buy the ticket and travel on any of the planes of the three companies. So, overnight, planes started to leave full.
The newly created air bridge now offers flights every 30 minutes. The cash revenue was later distributed among the companies according to the effective participation of each one in the network.
THE AIRCRAFT THAT MADE AND MAKE HISTORY
The term “air bridge” was created in 1959 to describe the agreement between the companies. The concept was a success and ended up inspiring other routes of the genre, such as the New York-Washington and New York-Boston bridges.
The first aircraft used in the airlift were the Convair 240, from Varig; the Convair 240, 340 and 440, from Cruzeiro; and the Saab Scandia, from Vasp.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the only type of plane to fly on the stretch was Varig's Electra, having its peak until the 1990s, when 44 flights were operated daily in each direction, Congonhas and Santos Dumont.
In 1991, as determined by the Department of Civil Aviation (DAC), the Lockheed Electra II turboprop aircraft were replaced by turbojet aircraft, such as the Fokker 100, Boeing 737 and Airbus A320. The change made it possible for the airline TAM, which was outside the agreement, to operate its own route between Rio and São Paulo.
With that, the agreement ceased to exist in the face of new competition. The term “aerial bridge” came to be considered for any trip between the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
Currently, Latam is responsible for the largest number of engers on the connection between the two largest Brazilian cities – there are almost 17 thousand flights per year. GOL Linhas Aéreas operates more than 15 flights.
Click on the image to see the main aircraft.
MANAGEMENT TAKES NEW DIRECTIONS: THE ROLE OF INFRAERO
Created 14 years after the emergence of the airlift, Infraero is part of this beautiful story. In 1981, Infraero started to manage Congonhas airport and, also, in 1987, the Company took over the management of Santos Dumont Airport.
In the first year in Congonhas, Infraero started building the room for the air bridge, completed in 1992. These were the first investments in a series of achievements made by the Company, over more than 30 years of airport istration.
Today, the Rio-São Paulo stretch is also considered the fourth busiest domestic route in the world, with almost 40 annual flights, and the most punctual in the world, according to the British consultancy Official Aviation Guide (OAG). Only routes between cities from Seoul to Jeju, South Korea; Melbourne to Sydney, Australia; and Mumbai to New Delhi, India, have the most traffic, according to research.
However, when it comes to Latin America, the Brazilian air shuttle is the busiest domestic route, with a difference of almost 8 engers for the second route, between the cities of Cuzco and Lima, in Peru.
INFRAERO AND MODERNIZATION
Since taking over the management of the Congonhas and Santos Dumont airports, Infraero has focused on modernizing the terminals, aiming at the safety of air operations in both terminals, while offering more comfort to engers.
Congonhas
Among the most important works carried out by Infraero at the São Paulo airport is the adaptation of the terminal to the traffic of 12 million engers a year. The renovations began in 2003 and were divided into two phases.
In the first, the boarding and arrivals area was reformulated, with the construction of a connector with 8 boarding bridges and a parking building for 3.400 vehicles.
The second phase, concluded in 2006, included readjusting the road system for boarding and disembarking engers and aircraft parking lots, renovating the enger terminal, resurfacing the auxiliary landing strip and expanding the connector, with the addition of more 4 boarding bridges, totaling the current 12 bridges.
Santos Dumont
The construction of the new enger terminal at Santos Dumont airport is also a milestone for Infraero. Work began in 2004 and was completed in 2007.
The new terminal was delivered with 8 boarding bridges, a climate-controlled bridge access connector and 51 check-in counters, totaling 8.177 m² of built area. The project, conceived by Sérgio Jardim, preserved the symmetry of the old terminal in harmony with the new one.
The departure lounge, made of transparent green material, allows a full view of Guanabara Bay, Sugarloaf Mountain and the Rio-Niterói Bridge. In 2016, the aircraft yard reconstruction works were delivered.
In the same year, the expansion of the commercial area of the airport was handed over, which now has a shopping mall, hotel and a new area in the departure terminal for shops and restaurants.
Via – Infraero
With photos and collaboration of – Gianfranco Beting and Luciano Jafet
Infographics
Ponte Aérea Timeline:
enger movement over the years of the Ponte Aérea:
Statistical data of the Ponte Aérea:
