After yesterday's successful auction, Dilma Rousseff's government hopes to revive the country´s aviation sector and fill the huge airport infrastructure delay that afflicts the country.
The State will collect over 10 billion euros from the concessionary companies, three times as much as forecasts, and has already announced that it intends to reinvest the proceeds "to improve the country's development", as explained by Civil Aviation Minister Wagner Bittencour, and to provide the "conditions for airlines (that have left the country, ed.) to be able to return". “Today we have 720 public airports, 130 of which have regular flights. We want to increase this volume of traffic”.
The international airports of São Paulo have gone up for auction, economic heart of Brazil, and of Brasilia, as well as the smaller but booming port of Campinas, about 100km from San Paolo, the future gateway to the southeast of the country.
The three airports together add up 30% of passengers and 57% of freight transport of the whole of Brazil. Consortia of national and foreign companies have competed to secure concessions in a rapidly expanding market: since 2003 the number of passengers has increased by 118% and forecasts are more than positive for the next few years.
Guarulhos Airport a São Paulo was beaten for 7 billion euros, with an increase of 373% compared to the minimum value set by the government. The twenty-year concession was awarded to the Brazilian-South African consortium Invepar-ACSA which will have to build the new 7 million passenger terminal.
Brasilia airport went to the Brazilian-Argentine consortium Inframerica for two billion euros, with an increase of 673%. The concession lasts 25 years and provides for the construction of a new terminal capable of receiving 2 million passengers.
The thirty-year concession of the airport of Campinas went instead to a Franco-Brazilian consortium for 1,6 billion euros and will see the construction of a new terminal for 5 million passengers.
From now on it will be a race against time to adapt the airport infrastructure, currently collapsing, to the needs of the coming years. The World Cup and the Olympics are just around the corner: they will have to make a good impression and impress the world, but they will last the time of a flash. When the tourists leave, however, the need to cater to a new class of millions of local travelers will remain. And above all that of supporting a rapidly growing economy which, without adequate infrastructure, risks hanging itself.
