Congonhas Domestic Airport is São Paulo's second airport, situated 8km from the city downtown. It is administered by Infraero, and as of 2003, was the busiest airport in Brazil, with 12,500,000 passengers passing through it.
In 1957, the airport was the third busiest of the world for cargo and freight.
Its name came from a plant that was common in the area where the airport was built in 1919. It was the city's main airport until 1985, when Guarulhos International Airport was built because of congestion at Congonhas and because Congonhas could not handle transatlantic flights.
Nowadays, the airport continues to be important to the city for regional and short-distance domestic flights. Even with the construction of Guarulhos Airport (35km away from the city's downtown), the Congonhas airport continues to face the problem of congestion, both for the number of passengers and the number of flights.
Congonhas is the main hub of Gol, a low-fare airline, and the third largest airline in Brazil.
The airport is located 90 km (58 miles) from São Paulo and 14 km (8 miles) from Campinas, close by the huge Bandeirantes and Anhangüera highway complex which connects the capital city to the interior.
Before the completion of Guarulhos International Airport in 1985, Viracopos was the international gateway to São Paulo.
Due to the airfield's distance from the city, international flights directly to Sao Paulo were limited; most passengers simply opted to fly to Rio de Janeiro and connect to the smaller CongonhasAirport, which was much closer to the city.
Feeds |
Contact