Belo Horizonte International Airport

Belo Horizonte/Confins – Tancredo Neves International Airport[4] (IATA: CNF, ICAO: SBCF), formerly called Confins International Airport is the primary international airport serving Belo Horizonte. Since 2 September 1986 the airport is named after Tancredo de Almeida Neves (1910–1985), President-elect of Brazil. It is located in the municipality of Confins, in the Minas Gerais.[5] It is operated by BH Airport S.A.

Belo Horizonte/Confins – Tancredo Neves International Airport

Aeroporto Internacional Belo Horizonte/Confins – Tancredo Neves
Summary
Airport typePublic
OperatorBH Airport
ServesBelo Horizonte
LocationConfins, Brazil
Hub for
Focus city for
Time zoneTime in Brazil (UTC−03:00)
Elevation AMSL827 m / 2,713 ft
Coordinates19°37′26″S 043°58′17″W
Websitewww.bh-airport.com.br
Map
CNF
Location in Brazil
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
16/34 3,600 11,811 Asphalt
Statistics (2019)
Passengers15,164,077 4%
Aircraft Operations102,269 1%
Statistics: BH Airport[1]
Sources: Airport Website,[2] ANAC[3]

History

The airport was built by Infraero and inaugurated in 1984. Its purpose was to lessen the congestion at Pampulha Airport, which at the time was operating at 120% of its capacity of 1.3 million passengers per year. It was expected that by 1990, passenger movement at Confins would be nearly 2 million passengers per year. However, it surpassed the 1 million passenger mark only 22 years later. Presently its maximum operational capacity is 22 million passengers per year.[6]

After its inauguration, just a small fraction of the capacity of Confins was used. This was partly due to its distance from downtown Belo Horizonte and, until recently, to the lack of satisfactory transportation alternatives for the pricey (about US$40) taxi rides. The over-crowded Pampulha Airport remained the airport of choice.

Airport exterior

In order to revert this scenario, in March 2005 the government of the state of Minas Gerais with the support of agencies of the Federal government decided to restrict Pampulha to operations of aircraft with capacity of up to 50 passengers.[7] In the months thereafter, most operations were forced to move to Confins and the airport gained a new momentum. At that time, 130 flights were transferred from Pampulha to Confins, increasing annual passenger flow from 350,000 to around 3.0 million that year.

The problems related to the distance of Confins to downtown Belo Horizonte were lessened by recent projects such as the improvement of the highway that links the city center to the airport (MG-10 highway), part of a larger project called Linha Verde (Green Line), which seeks to reduce the time needed to reach the airport.[8] Another project called the "Industrial Airport" is underway. In this project the government will exempt tax of businesses interested in settling their operations near the airport.[9]

Its cargo facilities have a capacity of handling 18.000 tones (39.682.000 lb) and the warehouse has 6.400 m² (68.889 ft²).

The main maintenance facilities of Gol Airlines are located at this airport.[10]

On 26 April 2011 it was confirmed that in order to speed-up much needed renovation and upgrade works, private companies would be granted a concession to explore some Infraero airports - among them, in a later phase, Confins.[11] The plan was confirmed on 31 May 2011 and it was added that Infraero would retain 49% of the shares of each privatized airport and that negotiations were expected to be concluded in the first half of 2012.[12]

On 22 November 2013 the Brazilian Government had a bidding process to determine the operator of the airport from 2014 until 2044. The group BH Airport formed by CCR (75%) and the administrator of Munich and Zurich Airports (25%) won the competition.[13][14]

On 16 September 2015, all international operations were transferred to a new provisional terminal - Terminal 3 while domestic operations remained in Terminal 1.[15]

The construction of Terminal 2 - an extension of Terminal 1 - started in September 2015 and finished in December 2016. It increased the airports capacity to 22 million passengers per year. On 8 December 2016 Terminal 2 was opened for domestic operations and in January 2017 international operations were transferred from Terminal 3. With the transfer of operations, Terminal 3 was closed.[16]

Future developments

On 31 August 2009, the previous concessionary, Infraero, unveiled a BRL342.3 million (US$180.3 million; EUR126.4 million) investment plan to upgrade Tancredo Neves International Airport, focusing on the preparations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The investment was supposed to be distributed as follows:[17]

  • Parking. Value 6.8. Completed: July 2010[18]
  • Extension of runway, enlargement of apron and cargo terminal, construction of further taxiways. Value 120.0. Completed.
  • Renovation of the passenger terminal. Value 215.5.

As of March 2016, only the parking lot and the apron expansion works have been completed. After many successive postponements due to budget cuts and judicial disputes between the airport administration, Infraero, the federal government and the contractors, the lengthening of the runway to 3,600 metres (11,800 ft) was completed in June 2016.[19]

As part of the concession, BH Airport committed itself to construct a new parallel runway with a length of 2,500 metres (8,200 ft), connecting taxiways and service roads as well as a multi-storey car park until 2020.[20]

Airlines and destinations

Passenger
AirlinesDestinations
Azul Brazilian Airlines Barreiras, Belém, Brasília, Cabo Frio, Campinas, Carajás, Cuiabá, Curitiba, Florianópolis, Fortaleza, Goiânia, Governador Valadares, Ilhéus, Jericoacoara, Montes Claros, Porto Alegre, Porto Seguro, Recife, Rio de Janeiro–Santos Dumont, Salvador da Bahia, São Luís, São Paulo–Congonhas, São Paulo–Guarulhos, Teixeira de Freitas, Uberaba, Uberlândia, Vitória, Vitória da Conquista
Azul Brazilian Airlines
operated by Azul Conecta 		Seasonal: Armação dos Búzios, Guarapari
Copa Airlines Panama City–Tocumen[21]
Eastern Airlines Boston (begins 31 May 2021),[22] Miami (begins 2 June 2021),[23] New York–JFK (begins 1 June 2021)[23]
Gol Transportes Aéreos Brasília, Fortaleza, Porto Seguro, Rio de Janeiro–Santos Dumont, Salvador da Bahia, São Paulo–Congonhas, São Paulo–Guarulhos
LATAM Brasil Brasília, São Paulo–Congonhas, São Paulo–Guarulhos
TAP Air Portugal Lisbon[24]
Airport interior

Cargo
AirlinesDestinations
LATAM Cargo Brasil Campinas, Fortaleza, Miami
Total Linhas Aéreas Fortaleza, Salvador, São Paulo-Guarulhos

Accidents and incidents
  • 15 September 2001: a TAM Airlines Fokker 100 registration PT-MRN operating the charter flight 9755, flying from Recife to Campinas-Viracopos, following an uncontrolled engine failure en route to Campinas had 3 cabin windows shattered by fragments of the engine and made an emergency landing at Belo Horizonte-Confins. One passenger was sucked out partly and held by another passenger until the aircraft landed. The passenger did not survive.[25][26]

Access

The airport is located 38 km (24 mi) north of downtown Belo Horizonte. It is regularly served by buses, taxis and Executive Airport Shuttle Buses. When using buses, transfer to the subway of Belo Horizonte is possible.

See also

References
  1. "Estatísticas e Publicações". BH Airport (in Portuguese). Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  2. "Aeroporto Intercional de Belo Horizonte". BH Airport (in Portuguese). Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  3. "Lista de aeródromos públicos". ANAC (in Portuguese).
  4. "Law 7534/1986". Presidência da República (in Portuguese). 2 September 1986. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  5. "Lei n˚7.534, de 2 de setembro de 1986" (in Portuguese). Soleis. 2 September 1986. Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 17 May 2011.
  6. url=http://www.bh-airport.com.br/novoaeroporto/ Archived 20 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine
  7. "Portaria n 189/DGAC, de 8 de março de 2005" (PDF) (in Portuguese). Ministério da Aeronáutica; Departamento de Aviação Civil. 10 March 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 August 2010. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
  8. "Linha Verde: O maior conjunto de obras em Belo Horizonte (Green Line: The greatest set of construction works in Belo Horizonte)" (in Portuguese). Sociedade Mineira de Engenheiros. 1 June 2001. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
  9. "Governo e iniciativa privada debatem aeroporto industrial (Government and private enterprise debate the industrial airport)" (in Portuguese). Governo de Minas: Secretaria de Estado de Desenvolvimento Econômico. Archived from the original on 24 March 2012. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
  10. "Brazil MRO sector poised for major expansion". Flightglobal. 6 July 2010. Archived from the original on 14 July 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2010.
  11. Bitencourt, Rafael (26 April 2011). "Governo define concessão de obras em 3 aeroportos, diz Palocci (Government defines concession of works in 3 airports, says Palocci)" (in Portuguese). Valor Online. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
  12. Salomon, Marta; Monteiro, Tânia (1 June 2011). "Governo pretende privatizar três aeroportos e abrir o capital da Infraero (Government intends to privatize three airports and make Infraero's capital public)" (in Portuguese). O Estado de S. Paulo: Economia. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
  13. Sakate, Marcelo (27 November 2013). "A privatização decola" [Privatization takes-off]. Veja (in Portuguese). São Paulo. 46 (48): 98.
  14. "BH assina contrato de concessão do Aeroporto Internacional de Belo Horizonte, em Confins" [Belo Horizonte signs the concession contract of the International Airport at Confins] (in Portuguese). 7 April 2014. p. 2. Archived from the original on 28 May 2014. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
  15. "Terminal 3 começa a operar no dia 16/9" [Terminal 3 starts operating on September 9] (in Portuguese). bh-airport. Archived from the original on 1 October 2015. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
  16. "Linha do Tempo" [Timeline] (in Portuguese). bh-airport. Archived from the original on 8 May 2017. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
  17. Rittner, Daniel; Braga, Paulo Victor (31 August 2009). "Infraero vai gastar R$5 bi em reforma de aeroportos" [Infraero is going to spend R$5 bn in airport renovation]. Valor Econômico (in Portuguese). pp. A4. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 8 July 2011.
  18. "Aeroporto de Confins (MG) amplia estacionamento de veículos" [Confins Airport (MG) expands vehicle parking] (in Portuguese). Jornal de Turismo. 26 July 2010. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 5 September 2010.
  19. Franco, Pedro Rocha (24 January 2016). "Conclusão da expansão da pista de pouso do aeroporto de Confins é novamente adiada" [Completion of Confins airport runway expansion is postponed again]. O Estado de Minas (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 9 April 2016. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
  20. "Projeto de Expansão" [Expansion project] (in Portuguese). bh-airport. Archived from the original on 8 May 2017. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
  21. "Copa Airlines retoma voos no Aeroporto de Belo Horizonte". Panrotas (in Portuguese). 7 December 2020. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  22. "Eastern Airlines muda planos e decide adiar sua estreia em Minas Gerais". Aeroin (in Portuguese). 18 January 2021. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  23. "Eastern Airlines terá voos dos EUA ao Brasil por menos de R$ 2 mil ida e volta". Aeroin (in Portuguese). 11 December 2020. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  24. "Operação TAP: De volta a ligá-lo ao mundo". TAP Air Portugal (in Portuguese). Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  25. "Accident description PT-MRN". Aviation Safety Network. Archived from the original on 28 January 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2011.
  26. Marra, Lívia (16 September 2001). "Avião da TAM acidentado em Minas havia sido revisado no mês passado" [TAM plane involved in accident in Minas Gerais had been maintenance-checked in the previous month] (in Portuguese). Folha Online. Archived from the original on 17 October 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2011.

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