On August 22, the day after Rio de Janeiro’s 2016 Olympic Games came to an end, the city’s Galeão/Tom Jobim International Airport welcomed its largest number of passengers ever, and the largest passenger aircraft with the first visit by an Airbus A380. A new terminal inaugurated in May with 26 new gates helped meet the demand, which was double the usual daily traffic, as well as techniques learned from other Olympics, such as pre-check-in for athletes at the Olympic Village. And there were Brazilian touches: concessionaire RIOGaleão advised international passengers who weren’t part of the “Olympic family” to arrive six hours before their flights, and then brought in food trucks to reinforce the airport’s normal offerings, and a samba school to make the wait into a party.
While commercial airline and charter traffic set records and operated smoothly, as did business aviation (including the reception of heads of state), traffic numbers fell far short of announced expectations. With around 1,000 business jets expected and a taxiway set aside that could hold up to 260 aircraft at a tie, Lider Aviação, which administered the area, reported that it had received 150 jets by August 16 at Galeão, with a peak of 60 aircraft on the ground.
Instead of the more than 100 heads of state or government expected, the opening ceremony included 20, of a total of 36 international authorities. The closing ceremony had only eight. This contrasted sharply with the London 2012 Olympics, when there were large influxes of world leaders, VIPs and celebrities for both the opening and closing ceremonies, and large numbers visited the sporting events.
Other Brazilian airports also received Olympic business jet traffic. The CGNA - Center for the Management of Air Navigation figures for August 22 showed 46 general aviation movements for Galeão (SBGL), 48 for Rio’s downtown Santos Dumont Airport (SBRJ), and 12 for Cabo Frio Airport (SBCB), which was just within the security “white zone”. Sorocaba Airport, expected to receive overflow movement, reported no noticeable increase in traffic during the Games.
While bizav traffic was only a fraction of what was forecast, Brazil was well prepared for that forecast, and this should put it in a good position for future needs. As Lider Aviation’s operations director, Cynthia Oliveira, observed, “The event still isn’t over, because there’s still the Paralympics,” pointed out Lider Aviation’s operations director Cynthia Oliveira. “We’ve participated in all the big events that Brazil has received in the last 30 years, such as the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, the various editions of Rock in Rio, the World Cup [soccer championship] and the Olympics. On each occasion, we made specific investments and learned with the event’s dynamics. The Olympics will also leave this legacy, not just with the new FBO at Galeão and the VIP lounge at Santos Dumont, but also with the expertise gained by the 400 collaborators who worked at Lider’s airport service unit.”
The gain in experience was also emphasized by the Brazilian air force (FAB), which is responsible for air space, security and safety. As for the World Cup two years ago, a master command and control room was set up at DECEA (the Department of Air Space Control), with representatives of government agencies, airlines and other stakeholders, including a seat for general aviation.
“It was excellent, without any [negative] occurrences,” was how Marcia Taue of Universal Weather & Aviation described the flight support company’s Olympic experience.
Lider’s Oliveira noted, “We had last-minute cancellations and there was enough space to accommodate a larger number of aircraft.” One ground handling manager who worked both events felt that this time (compared to the World Cup, for example), air space control was more helpful to business aviation and receptive to its concerns.
That nothing went seriously wrong may be due to excess capacity, but some capacity was created for the event. For example, the terminal where the French team boarded Air France’s A380 did not exist during the 2014 World Cup.