Decision Near On Private Bizav Airports In Brazil

Growth in commercial and business aviation over the past decade has saturated Brazil’s hub airports, leaving both commercial airlines and business aviation looking for alternatives. Now, it appears a solution is in the offing.

At the LABACE 2012 opening general session on Wednesday, Brazil secretary of civil aviation Wagner Bittencourt told a receptive crowd that a decree to permit the private construction and commercial operation of business aviation airports is “in the final stages of consideration.”

With Brazil scheduled to host the World Cup in 2014, and the Summer Olympics in 2016, it was news worth hearing for those attending the ninth edition of the Latin American business aviation show.

Traffic at airport general aviation airports within 100 miles of São Paulo has almost doubled in the last five years. And at Jundiai Airport traffic has gone from approximately 18,000 monthly movements to 50,000, while the number of hangars there has grown from 19 to 28.

Business aviation support has followed that trend, with Brazilian OEM Embraer announcing a new center at Sorocaba, about 60 miles west of São Paulo, where Dassault Falcon and Gulfstream service centers are already installed.

Two more general aviation airport projects have been unveiled for the São Paulo region, one with only sparse details. But the other presented at LABACE, by Catarina Aeroporto Executiva, featured a huge model under a tent square in front of the exhibit hall. Its layout showed two runways, the longer one being 8,100 feet, adjacent to a major highway. A condominium development appears behind the runway and a commercial development across the highway. A representative of Catarina Aeroporto Executiva told AIN that half the visitors to the tent have been non-Brazilians interested in setting up an FBO there with maintenance services and options for hangar space.