São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport

São Paulo/Guarulhos - Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (Cumbica) Aeroporto Internacional de São Paulo/Guarulhos - Governador André Franco Montoro (Cumbica)
IATA: GRU ICAO: SBGR
Summary
Airport type	Public/Military
Operator	Infraero
Serves	São Paulo
Location	Guarulhos, Brazil
Hub for	Gol Transportes Aéreos TAM Airlines
Elevation AMSL	2,459 ft / 750 m
Coordinates	23°25′55″S 46°28′10″W
Website	Infraero GRU
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 09R/27L 3,000 9,843 Asphalt 09L/27R 3,700 12,139 Asphalt
Statistics (2009)
Passengers 21,727,649 Aircraft operations 209,636 Metric tonnes of cargo 351,788
Statistics: Infraero Sources: Airport Website

São Paulo/Guarulhos – Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (IATA: GRU, ICAO: SBGR), nicknamed as Cumbica International Airport (after the former military airport in the same place), is a major Brazilian airport, the country's busiest by passenger traffic, located in the district of Cumbica, in the city of Guarulhos in metropolitan São Paulo. The airport is located 25 km (15 mi) from Downtown São Paulo. It began operations in 1985, supplanting São Paulo-Congonhas Airport as the city's primary airport.

A hub in South America, Guarulhos is Brazil's busiest airport by both passenger traffic and aircraft movements, handling 21,607,303 passengers (around one-sixth of all passengers passing through Brazilian airports.) and 209,638 aircraft movements in 2009. By cargo traffic, it is the second busiest airport in Latin America only exceeded by El Dorado International Airport of Bogotá, also the airport is the 36th busiest airport in the world. Until October 2010, Guarulhos airport handled more than 22 million passengers, compared with Congonha's 12.7 million and Campina's 4.3 million. In total over 39.5 million passengers used São Paulo-area airports until October, making the São Paulo-area the busiest airport system in Latin America in terms of passenger numbers and traffic movements. Currently is the busiest airport in Latin America by passenger traffic. However, this airport was put in the world's third place in number of delayed flights by Forbes magazine in January, 2008.

Comprising 3,425 acres (14 km²), of which 5 km² is urbanized area, the airport's infrastructure has its own highway system: Rodovia Helio Smidt from the airport is connected to Rodovia Presidente Dutra and Rodovia Ayrton Senna.

On 28 November 2001, a federal law changed the airport name to honor the ex-governor of São Paulo state, André Franco Montoro, deceased in 1999, although the official name is hardly ever used by locals, who normally refer to it as Guarulhos Airport or, even more commonly, just Cumbica, after the Guarulhos neighbourhood and name of the Brazilian Air Force base that exists at the site in which the airport was built. The Tropic of Capricorn passes directly through the southern tip of the airport.

Current Status

All passenger traffic is divided between two terminals (TPS1 and TPS2). With 260 check-in counters, the airport is operational 24 hours a day. 39 national and international airlines fly from São Paulo-Guarulhos to 28 different countries, as well as more than 100 cities in Brazil and the world. Boliviana de Aviación is the newest airline to start operations at the airport in November 2010, with flights to Cochabamba in Bolivia.

Airport plans call for the construction of two additional terminals (TPS3 and TPS4) and a third runway, bringing the airport to full capacity for passenger and cargo operations.

The airport can service up to 20.5 million passengers a year.

Guarulhos currently operates with capacity restrictions of a maximum of 45 operations/hour, being the only airport in Brazil with such restrictions and schedule facilitation.

Future developments

Panoramic view of the airport

On 31 August 2009, Infraero unveiled a BRL1,489.5 million (USD784.7 million; EUR549.8 million) investiment plan to up-grade Guarulhos International Airport focusing on the preparations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup which will be held in Brazil, São Paulo being one of the venue cities. The investiment will be distributed as follows:

• Construction of further taxiways. Value 19.0. Completion: April 2011
• Enlargement of apron and taxiways. Value 370.5. Completion: July 2011
• Construction of the passenger terminal 3. Value 1,100.0. Completion: March 2014

Central to this investiment plan is the third terminal, which will add another 12 million passenger capacity to the 17 million of the existing two terminals. The long-term plan also envisages a fourth terminal. The master plan forecasts traffic reaching some 25 million annually by 2013. Plans for a third runway were considered "technically impracticable" and cancelled on January 2008. The main focus of Infraero has been the third terminal and the development of Viracopos Airport in an attempt to relieve pressure on airports of São Paulo.

The construction of an airport express rail link to the city and a high-speed train connecting the airport to Rio de Janeiro and the city of Campinas together with all these cities main airports (specially Campinas's Viracopos International which is planned to be the country's largest airport by 2025 with capacity for over 60 million passengers annually) has also been given high priority. More than 25 Brazilian and international companies have expressed an interest in taking this project forward.

Terminals, airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations	Terminal/Wing
Aerolíneas Argentinas	Buenos Aires-Aeroparque, Buenos Aires-Ezeiza	1A
Aeroméxico	Mexico City	1A
Aerosur	Santa Cruz de la Sierra-Viru Viru	2D
Air Canada	Toronto-Pearson	2D
Air China	Beijing-Capital, Madrid	1A
Air France	Paris-Charles de Gaulle	1A
Alitalia	Rome-Fiumicino	1A
American Airlines	Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami, New York-JFK	2D
Avianca	Bogotá	1A
Avianca Brazil	Belo Horizonte-Confins, Bogotá, Brasília, Campo Grande, Florianópolis, Passo Fundo, Petrolina, Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro-Galeão, Rio de Janeiro-Santos Dumont, Salvador da Bahia	1B
Boliviana de Aviación	Cochabamba	2D
British Airways	Buenos Aires-Ezeiza [ends 27 March], London-Heathrow	1A
Continental Airlines	Houston-Intercontinental, Newark	2D
Copa Airlines	Panama City	2D
Delta Air Lines	Atlanta, Detroit, New York-JFK	1A
El Al	Tel Aviv	1B
Emirates	Dubai	2D
Gol Airlines	Asunción, Belém-Val de Cães, Belo Horizonte-Confins, Brasília, Buenos Aires-Aeroparque, Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Campo Grande, Cuiabá, Curitiba-Afonso Pena, Florianópolis, Fortaleza, Foz de Iguaçu, Goiânia, João Pessoa, Maceió, Manaus, Montevideo, Natal, Porto Alegre, Porto Seguro, Recife, Rio de Janeiro-Galeão, Salvador da Bahia, Santa Cruz de la Sierra-Viru Viru, Santiago de Chile, Vitória	2C
Gol Airlines operated by Varig	Aruba, Barbados, Bogotá, Caracas, Punta Cana, St. Marteen, Rio de Janeiro-Galeão	2C
Iberia	Madrid	1A
KLM	Amsterdam	1A
Korean Air	Los Angeles, Seoul-Incheon	2D
LAN Airlines	Santiago de Chile	2D
LAN Argentina	Buenos Aires-Aeroparque	2D
LAN Perú	Lima	2D
Lufthansa	Frankfurt, Munich	2D
Pantanal Linhas Aéreas	Araçatuba, Bauru-Arealva, Brasília, Juiz de Fora, Marília, Maringá, Presidente Prudente, Ribeirão Preto, São José do Rio Preto, Uberaba	1B
Passaredo Linhas Aéreas	Bauru-Arealva, Cuiabá, Marília, Goiânia, Palmas, Presidente Prudente, Ribeirão Preto, São José do Rio Preto, Uberlândia	1A
PLUNA	Montevideo	2C
Puma Air	Belém-Val de Cães, Macapá	1A
Qatar Airways	Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Doha	2D
South African Airways	Johannesburg	2D
Swiss International Air Lines	Zürich	2D
TAAG Angola Airlines	Luanda	2D
TACA Perú	Lima	2D
TAM Airlines	Aracaju, Belém-Val de Cães, Belo Horizonte-Confins, Boa Vista, Brasília, Bogotá [begins December 19], Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Campo Grande, Caracas, Curitiba-Afonso Pena, Florianópolis, Fortaleza, Foz de Iguaçu, Frankfurt, Goiânia, João Pessoa, Lima, London-Heathrow, Maceió, Madrid, Manaus, Miami, Milan-Malpensa, Montevideo, Natal, New York-JFK, Orlando, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Porto Alegre, Porto Seguro, Recife, Rio de Janeiro-Galeão, Salvador da Bahia, Santiago de Chile, Vitória	1B
TAM Airlines Paraguay	Asunción, Ciudad del Este	1B
TAP Portugal	Lisbon, Porto	2D
TRIP Linhas Aéreas	Araçatuba, Cascavel, Criciúma, Cuiabá, Governador Valadares, Ipatinga, Joinville, Juiz de Fora, Maringá, Navegantes, São José do Rio Preto	1A
Turkish Airlines	Istanbul-Atatürk	2D
United Airlines	Chicago-O'Hare, Washington- Dulles	1A
WebJet Linhas Aéreas	Belo Horizonte-Confins, Brasília, Curitiba-Afonso Pena, Fortaleza, Porto Alegre, Ribeirão Preto, Rio de Janeiro-Santos Dumont, Salvador da Bahia	1A

Statistics

Year	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005	2004	2003	2002	2001	2000
Passengers	21727649	20997813	19560963	16580842	16855026	12940193	12552268	12808437	13098609	14218788
Cargo (TM)	394852	489650	424157	495879	497072	435594	418927	390085	352000	348200

Accidents and incidents

• 21 March 1989: Transbrasil flight 801, a cargo Boeing 707-349C registration PT-TCS, flying from Manaus to São Paulo-Guarulhos, crashed at the district of Vila Barros in Guarulhos, shortly before touch-down at runway 09R. That day, at 12:00 the runway was going to be closed for maintenance and the crew decided to speed up procedures to touch-down before closure (it was already 11:54). In a hurry, one of the crew members, by mistake, activated the air-dynamic brakes and the aircraft lost too much speed to have enough aerodynamic support (Stall). As a consequence the aircraft crashed at approximately 2 km from the airport. There were 25 fatalities which of these three were crew members and 22 were civilians on the accident site. As well as the 22 fatalities, there were also over 100 injured on the ground.
• 14 September 2002: Total Linhas Aéreas, a ATR42-312 registration PT-MTS on a cargo flight between São Paulo-Guarulhos and Londrina crashed while en route near Paranapanema. The crew of 2 died.

Access

The Helio Smidt Freeway (SP-019) that serves as access to the airport.

There are several transportation options available at Guarulhos Airport. The most inexpensive way to travel to and from the airport is by bus. There is a public bus that runs every 30 minutes and travels to Tatuapé Bus terminal where connections with public transportation and the subway system are available. Ticket counters for this bus service can be found at the Arrivals area of both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2.

Another option is the executive bus service linking Guarulhos to Congonhas Airport in about 1 hour, depending on traffic.

Taxi stands are located outside the two terminals just outside the Baggage Claim area. It is recommended that travelers take taxis of any of the airport taxi companies. The fare can be pre-paid at their counters. If preferring a normal taxi, make sure that the meter has been cleared from the previous fare before entering the taxi and that the price of the fare for the destination is agreed. A taxi to downtown São Paulo takes around 30 minutes depending on the traffic. Generally, the ride costs around $50.00.

There are rent-a-car facilities at the airport.

Getting to the airport by car is easy, and routes generally use either the Ayrton Senna highway or Presidente Dutra highway, with signs indicating the way.

See also

• List of the busiest airports in Brazil

Gallery

• 
  Inaugural plaque at the airport
• 
  The control tower
• 
  Guarulhos Airport at dusk
• 
  Approach Lighting System CAT II at Guarulhos Airport
• 
  External view of Terminal 1 (TPS1)
• 
  Internal view of Terminal 1 (TPS1)
• 
  External view of Terminal 2 (TPS2)

External links

• Template:WAD
• Airport information for SBGR at Great Circle Mapper. Source: DAFIF (effective October 2006).
• Current weather for SBGR at NOAA/NWS
• Accident history for GRU at Aviation Safety Network