Seven months after the socio-environmental catastrophe caused by heavy rains that hit almost all of Rio Grande do Sul, between April and May this year, Salgado Filho International Airport, in Porto Alegre (RS), returned to operation with its structure fully recovered.
Fraport Brasil, the company that manages the airport site, delivered today (16) the main runway, 3.2 km long. The access roads between the aircraft aprons and the runway and passenger terminal were also restored.
Since October 18, the airport had been operating from 8 am to 10 pm, receiving only domestic commercial flights. According to the concessionaire, with the completion of the infrastructure recovery works, the airport will once again operate 24 hours a day, allowing for an increase in the number of landings and takeoffs and the resumption of international flights.
The first aircraft from abroad, coming from Panama City, is scheduled to land in Porto Alegre in the early hours of next Thursday (19). On January 2nd, flights will resume from Porto Alegre to Lima, Peru, and on the 3rd, to Santiago, Chile.
According to Fraport, the Portuguese airline TAP has also confirmed that it will soon resume the route from the capital of Rio Grande do Sul to Lisbon. Furthermore, two new domestic destinations, Recife and Salvador, will be connected to Porto Alegre.
The Minister of Ports and Airports, Silvio Costa Filho, celebrated, in a statement, the completion of the works. “This total recovery is the result of a lot of commitment from the federal government, which worked intensely [junto] with the concessionaire so that the state’s main airport could return to normal operations. We know how important it is for GDP [Produto Interno Bruto] of Rio Grande do Sul, for business tourism, for leisure tourism and for cargo transportation,” stated Filho.
The minister of the Social Communication Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, Paulo Pimenta, also commented on the matter, in a note. “Today we are delivering the airport 100% functioning, with the resumption of international flights. Many people did not believe it was possible. They thought the airport would only reopen in March of next year. An investment of R$425 million from the Federal Government It was essential for the concessionaire to be able to reopen the airport’s operation 100%. An airport that is more modern, better than it was before the flood and this is what the reconstruction will be like: everything we are rebuilding will be better than it was before”, Pimenta pointed out.
