Viracopos may become a mega airport
Valor Econômico - 03/03/2008
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has given Infraero the green light to proceed with an ambitious project for the expansion of Viracopos, in Campinas, which may end up by becoming an alternative for the construction of a third large airport in the region of São Paulo. The state-owned company intends to make Viracopos a mega airport, with four runways and capacity for up to 85 million passengers a year. For the purpose of comparison, the terminal of Campinas received little more than 1 million passengers last year; in Guarulhos, there were 19.7 million. The plan starts to be performed in the next months, with the hiring of the engineering construction design of the second runway. The intention of Infraero's President Sergio Gaudenzi is to start the construction in 2009, after the end of the study. With 3.6 thousand meters of length and 60 meters of width, the second runway would receive investments of R$ 350 million. The state-owned company has entered into a term of cooperation, with the government of Campinas, which will allow the expropriation of an area of 12 square kilometers, including 88 country properties and three thousand lots in the municipality. Many people from the government consider it makes much more sense to bet on the growth of Viracopos, enlarging the passenger terminal and planning, forthwith, the construction of new runways in the future, than investing in the construction of a new airport to meet the demand of São Paulo - with all the costs involved in it, from studies for the location of the airport site to the expropriations required, also including the road access to the new infrastructure.