Santos Dumont to join Galeão in 2023 auction of Brazil airports

Rio de Janeiro’s Santos Dumont Airport will be auctioned along with the International Airport of Galeão in the second half of 2023, said Brazil’s Minister of Infrastructure Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas. At a press conference, he confirmed the withdrawal of Santos Dumont from the seventh round of airport concessions, to take place this year.

After the move, the seventh round should encompass 15 airports, to be sold in three blocks: São Paulo–Mato Grosso do Sul–Pará, which includes the Congonhas Airport, in São Paulo city, and another eight; Rio de Janeiro–Minas Gerais, covering only the airports of Jacarepaguá, in Rio de Janeiro, and those of Montes Claros, Uberlândia, and Uberaba, in Minas Gerais; and North 2, with the airports of the capital cities of Macapá and Belém.

The Santos Dumont auction was moved to an later date after Singaporean firm Changi, which controls the concessionaire administering Galeão, decided to quit the business. The Asian company filed a motion with Brazil’s aviation authority ANAC to leave the concession, after the agency denied its request to have the execution of the contract reviewed early in the month.

Losses from the reduction in air traffic during the pandemic added up to BRL 7.5 billion, Changi reported. The concessionaire, which currently holds 51 percent of the airport, sought to deduct the amount from the grants to be paid to the government until 2039, when the current contract ends. In updated values, the company would have to pay over BRL 1 billion a year.

The minister reported that Changi will continue to provide services at Galeão until the contract for the new concession is signed. The remaining 49 percent of Galeão is controlled by state-run agency Infraero.