With just 30 days remaining before the 2016 Olympic Games opening ceremony, Lider Aviação announced that it has been selected as the official business aviation handler for Rio Tom Jobim International Airport during the event. For the 2014 World Cup, Jet Aviation handled high-density parking at the airport, which is now privatized under the RioGaleão consortium. Business jet parking space will be split 70/30 between Lider and Universal Weather and Aviation.
Airport director Cynthia Oliveira told AIN that Lider will operate Taxiway M, which was used for parking in 2014 for the World Cup and can handle 260 business jets if the mix remains the same. She noted that with 58 years of operating its own ramps and hangars, Lider has ample high-density parking experience and attended to 648 aircraft just at Jobim during the World Cup, including 80 percent of the movements for the final game.
Official estimates are for 900 to 1,000 business jet operations at Rio Jobim and Santos Dumont Airports on August 5, the opening day. Oliveira notes that the Olympics are concentrated in Rio and present challenges different from those posed by the World Cup’s dozen host cities—in all of which Lider has bases—and the handler will be bringing in personnel from these other bases to handle the demand.