As commercial and business aviation grow in Brazil, and especially in São Paulo, they compete for limited airport infrastructure. The populist federal government has explicitly stated that commercial aviation has priority for airport real estate and slots at the large airports of Guarulhos, Campinas and Congonhas.
Several new dedicated business airports (Aerovale, Catarina and Rodoanel/Harpia/Aeroparque) and one privately owned commercial airport (Caieras) have been announced in recent years, and the Sorocaba airport, owned by the state rather the federal government, has broken ground on a new control tower.
Various of the São Paulo business airport projects have exhibited at LABACE in recent years, including the World Way Aviation hangar at Sorocaba; a smaller private hangar at São José dos Campos; Catarina; and Aerovale. Of those, only Catarina is exhibiting at LABACE 2015, and only Catarina appears to be moving forward at full speed (see below).
However, Brazil’s current economic crisis has slowed all aviation growth, and slowed or stopped many of the airport projects.
Guarulhos International Airport - GRU
Guarulhos (or Cumbica) airport carries more passengers than any other airport in the country. Built in 1985 and two years ago ceded to private management, the airport has since then added a new passenger terminal, parking garage and other improvements. Also, at last, in June it received approval for a CAT 3A ILS from civil aviation agency ANAC, the country’s first such system.
A GRU spokesman told AIN, “At the moment, we have no new plans for business aviation,” and he noted that, “In airports which operate mostly commercial flights, as is Guarulhos’s case, with a large passenger volume, attention is more focused on facilitating the flow of people, safely and efficiently.” GRU has ramp space with 20 positions for business aviation (4 for helicopters and 16 for fixed-wing aircraft).
Campinas Viracopos Airport
One of the first airports to be privatized, along with Guarulhos, Viracopos for many years focused on freight and regional traffic. Then in 2008 upstart airline Azul picked Viracopos for its hub and the airport has never looked back–it should handle more than 10 million passengers this year.
Ambitious expansion plans call for new terminals, runways and parking garages, but published plans include no specific provisions for business aviation.
Caieiras (aka “NASP” – Brazilian acronym for New São Paulo Airport)
To meet future metropolitan aviation needs, a proposal was floated to build a new commercial airport with R$9 billion (US$2.7 billion) in private capital in Caieíra, 35 km to the northwest of São Paulo.
To start with, the operators of the privatized Guarulhos and Viracopos airports put in bids for the concessions without any hint of a new competitor being allowed to enter the metropolitan market. Backing the proposal was a partnership between two major construction firms and major corporate political contributors, Andrade Gutierrez and Camargo Corrêa.
However, the bill that permitted privately owned airports was vetoed by the president in January this year. In June the president of Andrade Gutierrez was arrested in a corruption scandal, and in July executives of Camargo Corrêa were found guilty in a related scandal. Newspaper O Globo’s political gossip column said in July that both firms are now celebrating the veto as the economic situation has soured.
Harpia/Rodoanel/Aeroparque
Of all proposals, the Rodoanel business airport is the closest to São Paulo’s business center, and actually within the city limits in the Paralheiros neighborhood, located southwest of Congonhas. The project was launched with fanfare, in the auditorium of the president of the republic’s offices in São Paulo, with a battery of political and aviation luminaries. However, the project met with environmental opposition.
The project is now being pitched as nature sensitive (the site changed its name from “aerodromo-harpia” to www.aeroparque.com.br), emphasizing that the construction will occupy only 15 percent of the site. Nothing has been built yet, but the site, a Facebook page, a YouTube channel and some beautiful brochures and animations have been created.
AIN was told soon after the launch that the project partners had not purchased the land but only had an option to buy. Before LABACE, an industry executive diagnosed the project’s problems as “political in nature” and said, “It’s not going to happen at this time.”
Aerovale
Aerovale in Caçapava, beyond São José dos Campos toward Rio de Janeiro, predates all other business aviation proposals in the São Paulo region, having begun the regulatory process in 2009 and started construction in 2012.
The airport was planned to be viable as a business condominium with an airstrip serving tenants. Owner and sole investor Roger Penido claimed that when the new law passed allowing private business airports to charge landing fees, “the Secretary of Civil Aviation called and asked if we’d like a permit.”
Aerovale exhibited at LABACE 2014 but is absent this year after several setbacks. While construction has proceeded with paving of the 1,550 x 30 meter (5,085 x 98.5 ft) runway and heliport–and in January the airport projected a June opening–in March a federal prosecutor alleging environmental and wetlands violations persuaded a judge to freeze construction. News accounts in April said the firm had filed for protection from its creditors, although its debts in question are said to be small in comparison to the investment in the Aerovale project.
The airport’s marketing director, Noeli Penido told AIN before LABACE, “The project is going ahead and we project that everything [runway and business building lots] will be ready by the end of 2017. We hope to ask for certification of the runway by June 2016.” Currently 69 percent of the work is finished, and the runway is in the completion stage.
Catarina Business Airport
The São Paulo Catarina Aeroporto Executivo is part of a development that already includes an operating retail outlet mall and a projected high-rise office park and residential condominium.
Project developer JHSF is a listed public company focused on the luxury sector, and has been untouched by the scandals that have beleaguered many other large construction firms over the past year. The chosen location avoided most environmental concerns by being located in reforested eucalyptus, not a protected native species.
The Catarina development is located on the 60th kilometer of the Castello Branco highway, in São Paulo’s neighbor city of São Roque (on the way to Sorocaba). The airport will occupy 1,285 acres of the 1,730 acre site.
The plans call for moving 14million cubic meters of earth to create the airport, with earthmoving more than half done by July. The work is due to be completed by November. JHSF assured AIN that “work is on schedule” for inauguration of the first phase of the airport, including the main runway, in the first half of 2016.
The licenses Catarina needs and has obtained include permission to charge fees for airport operations, obtained from the federal Civil Aviation Secretariat; construction permits, from civil aviation agency ANAC; air space circulation permission, from air space authority DECEA; environmental licensing, from state environmental agency CETESB; plus other state and city authorizations.
Catarina developers hope it will become an “international business airport” and its 8,103 ft main runway will enable international operations. But it’s a long road to obtain permissions from agencies such as the tax authorities and the federal police. At Brazilian international airports, private jet passengers are bused to the main terminal to get in line for immigration along with commercial passengers, an attitude that predates the current populist administration.
JHSF’s affirmation that it “maintains a permanent dialogue with airport regulatory authorities” for international licensing and on-site customs and immigration underlines the size of the challenge.
The Catarina Business Airport project includes space for MRO facilities, FBOs and leased hangars. JHSF told AIN that the firm “has conversed with various global companies interested in the project,” but the company denied rumors that an international aviation school has taken space at the facility.
Sorocaba
Sorocaba Airport’s proximity to São Paulo (a little over an hour by car); its 4,859-foot runway; and a business-friendly local government (the mayor was at the opening of LABACE 2014) have attracted major business aviation facilities.
Pratt & Whitney Canada, Gulfstream and Dassault Falcon have MRO facilities at the airport, and Embraer this year inaugurated a new MRO facility and its first branded FBO there. Next to Embraer’s facility, similarly-sized and privately owned WWA (World Way Aviation), with a hangar and FBO, plans to hold its inauguration in the coming months.
Ground was broken on the airport’s control tower in April, financed by state airport authority DAESP after funds weren’t forthcoming from the federal government’s regional aviation program. A second bidding process is needed to equip the tower, which is expected to start operating in October 2016. Plans to make the airport international remain nebulous.
Despite the increased presence of the aircraft manufacturers, in the first five months of 2015 there were 24,229 operations at Sorocaba, down from 27,100 for the same period in 2014. The state-owned airport doesn’t appear in the ABAG Yearbook of General Aviation, and the DECEA figures the Yearbook relies on omit Sorocaba but include much less busy, federally-operated aerodromes.