Infraero invests up to US$ 3.7 billion to prepare for the FIFA Soccer World Cup
DCI 09/02/10
With an estimate of completing all the works to qualify the 16 Brazilian airports by the end of 2013, Infraero intends to invest R$ 6.4 billion (US$ 3.7 billion) to meet the demand of passengers in the 2014 FIFA Soccer World CupTM. Among the investments, the Cumbica International Airport (SP) will have the largest one, R$ 1.2 billion (US$ 685.7 million), which will be divided among lanes and courtyards reforms, passenger terminal and implementation of Operating Modules known as "temporary terminals". Infraero is estimating that with the growth of the demand in the World Cup, more than 28.7 million passengers pass through the 16 airports in the months of June and July 2014, which corresponds to an increase of 69% compared to the 17 million recorded in June and July of this year.Among the projects and works foreseen, seven airports are preparing the bidding rules for future public bids of the works: Viracopos (SP), Cumbica (SP), Salvador (BA), Salgado Filho (RS), Curitiba (PR), Marechal Rondon (MT) and Confins (MG). The State-owned Company, however, did not know exactly when the bidding rules will be posted. Four other airports are getting ready to receive the "temporary terminals". Only in Cumbica three of these Operating Modules will be installed at a cost of R$ 59.5 million (US$ 34 million); the others will be located in the Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek International Airport (DF), in Viracopos and Marechal Rondon. According to Infraero, these modules are an engineering solution used at airports in several countries and also in major events or to meet specific demands.
Of the R$ 6.4 billion (US$ 3.7 billion) to be invested in airport works, 60% will come from resources of the State-owned Company, and the remaining R$ 2.5 billion (US$ 1.43 billion), from investments of the Federal Government. According to the Director of Engineering and Environment of Infraero, Jaime Parreira, the 16 airports of the 12 host cities are responsible for 83% of Brazilian air traffic, and only the Galeão Airport, in Rio de Janeiro, has no bottlenecks. According to the superintendent of Galeão, Andre Luis Marques, the expectation is to increase the processing capacity from the current 15 million passengers per year to 20 million already in 2012. "The Galeão still has capacity to accommodate more passengers. Even so, we will invest more to suit to the future demands", he said.