Campinas International Airport, Viracopos, went through some very distinct phases. The first, when it was the airport for international flights from the State of São Paulo, at a time when the Guarulhos airport did not exist and the Douglas DC-8, Douglas DC-10, Boeing 707 and Boeing 747 aircraft did not have a runway. sufficient in length for its take-off and landing operations in Congonhas.
In a second phase, Viracopos was practically abandoned, with the opening of Guarulhos and very few flights landed or took off from that airfield, with the exception of freighters.
Located 14 kilometers from the center of Campinas and 99 kilometers from São Paulo, Viracopos International Airport is accessible via Santos Dumont, Bandeirantes and Anhanguera highways.
The old airfield, as it was called, became one of the main connection points in Latin America. The Import and Export Cargo Logistics Terminal has an area of more than 81 thousand square meters.
In the 90’s the airport began to emerge for the International Air Cargo segment, evidencing its cargo vocation. In addition to the expansion of infrastructure, the modernization of cargo handling and customs clearance processes, developed through a partnership with the Federal Revenue, made the airport a reference in logistics on the national scene.
Since 1995, Infraero has invested in implementing the first phase of the airport’s Master Plan, with improvements to the cargo and passenger terminals.
In 2005, the second phase of the work to expand the passenger terminal was delivered. The first was delivered in the first half of 2004, when the airport started to have new departure and arrival halls, public areas and commercial concessions.
On July 3, 2010, a TAP Airbus A330-200 resumed regular passenger flights in Campinas, coming from Lisbon.
The Aeroportos Brasil consortium has managed the airport since June 14, 2013. As of the signing of the contract, a period of transition in the management of Viracopos began between Infraero and Aeroportos Brasil Viracopos, which became the concessionaire.
Aeroportos Brasil is formed by UTC Participações SA (45% stake), TPI – Triunfo Participações e Investimentos SA (45%) and Egis Airport Operation (10%). The concessionaire is the majority shareholder of Viracopos International Airport, with 51%. Infraero (with 49%) remains a shareholder, as determined by the federal government.
On July 28, 2017, the shareholders of Concessionária Aeroportos Brasil Viracopos authorized the board to start the devolution process so that a new bidding process might be carried out and the concession transferred to another group, due to a debt of R$ 460 million related to the grants owed to the federal government. Until the new tender, Aeroportos Brasil Viracopos continues to manage the airport.
From Viracopos, passengers can board for the following domestic destinations: Aracaju, Araçatuba, Bauru, Belo Horizonte, Bonito, Brasília, Caldas Novas, Campo Grande. Cascavel, Caxias do Sul, Chapecó, Corumbá, Cuiabá, Curitiba, Divinópolis, Dourados, Florianópolis, Fortaleza, Foz do Iguaçu, Goainá, Goiânia, Ilhéus, Jaguaruna, Jericoacoara, João Pessoa, Joinvile, Juazeiro do Norte, Lages, Londrina, Maceió , Manaus, Marília, Maringá, Montes Claros, Natal, Navegantes, Palmas, Parnaíba, Passo Fundo, Petrolina, Ponta Grossa, Porto Alegre, Porto Seguro, Porto Velho, Presidente Prudente, Recife, Ribeirão Preto, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Verde, Salvador, São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo, Sinop, Teresina, Três Lagoas, Uberaba, Uberlândia, Valença and Vitória.
Internationally there are flights to: Fort Lauderdale, Lisbon, Orlando and Paris, in addition to punctual charters to destinations in South America.
In 2018, passenger traffic in Campinas was practically stagnant, with a slight drop in domestic traffic and a 24% growth in international traffic.
In 2020, Viracopos won an international certificate that accredited the terminal to become one of the main airports in Latin America to import and export products from the pharmaceutical industry. Viracopos obtained the CEIV PHARMA (Center of Excellence for Independent Validators in Pharmaceutical Logistics) global certification, issued by IATA (International Air Transport Association), which aims to help organizations and the entire air cargo supply chain to achieve excellence in Pharmaceuticals logistics. With this certificate, Viracopos became recognized as a global operator of cargo of pharmaceutical products.
Viracopos Airport ended the year 2021 with a historical record for cargo handling (by weight) for a year. The airport processed a total of 364,300 tons of cargo last year, including the areas of import, export, express shipments (courier) and national cargo.
With the increase in demand in 2021 and the prospect of continued growth in passengers in 2022, the concessionaire intensified the expansion of several areas in the Passenger Terminal, including the reopening of the 2nd floor for arrivals as of 12/17/2021 and the expansion of the food court with new restaurants and tables in the first half of 2022.
Viracopos International Airport, in Campinas (SP), was elected the Best Airport in Brazil in 2021 in the category of over 10 million passengers/year in a passenger satisfaction survey carried out by the Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SAC). This is the third time that Viracopos wins the annual title, and in the other two previous times the airport won in the general category, surpassing 20 airports.
In October 2022, Viracopos won the highest Customer Experience award in the Americas, the Customer Centricity Awards 2022. In addition to winning the award in its category in the North America division (which encompasses North, Central and South America), the concessionaire Aeroportos Brasil Viracopos also won the award in the general category (Overall Winner 2022), in which it competed alongside 44 companies in 14 categories.
The Viracopos case competed in the “Customer-Centered Culture” category, which seeks to recognize companies that are dedicated to promoting excellence in their services with a view to customer satisfaction. The airport had been selected as a finalist last July.
Viracopos International Airport, in Campinas (SP), set a new passenger handling record in 2022 with 11,845,500 people boarding or disembarking through the terminal.
The previous record was from 2019, with 10,585,018 passengers. The 2022 movement represents a growth of 17.92% compared to 2021, which had 10,045,361 passengers.
Extensions in the terminal
Due to the growth in the movement of passengers and flights in 2022, the concessionaire Aeroportos Brasil Viracopos, administrator of Viracopos Airport, carried out works on the landing and takeoff runway and expanded several areas in the Passenger Terminal, with the complete delivery of Pier B, which included the opening of four more boarding and disembarking bridges at Pier B, on July 1, 2022, with an investment of BRL 50 million and a total of 14,000 m² of new areas.
Aeroportos Brasil Viracopos also concluded the renovation of the paving of the landing and take-off runway, with an investment of over R$ 16 million.
Of the four new boarding and disembarking bridges, two were intended for domestic flights and the other two will be hybrid, that is, they may eventually be used on domestic or international flights. They are: B11, B12, B13 and B14. As a result, all 28 departure and arrival bridges at the airport are in operation.
During 2021, the concessionaire had already put into operation five additional domestic boarding bridges at Pier B, namely: B2, B4, B6, B8 and B10. Also at the end of 2021, a second passenger access to Pier B was opened through the store hall due to the increased flow of passengers.
As proof of constant improvements in airport infrastructure, Viracopos once more received from SAC (Secretary of Civil Aviation), in March 2022, the annual award for Best in Brazil in its category. Last month, Viracopos was elected the 4th best airport in the world in an international ranking by AirHelp.
Even in a challenging year for the Brazilian aviation sector, the concessionaire Aeroportos Brasil Viracopos SA (“ABV”), manager of Viracopos International Airport, in Campinas (SP), voluntarily and extraordinarily amortized 10% of its outstanding balance with BNDES and transfer banks. In addition to the contractually provided debt service of BRL 373.5 million, in 2022, the concessionaire also paid another BRL 227.5 million, totaling BRL 601 million of amounts paid to financers.
The extraordinary amortization of the debt was only possible following a long negotiation with the banks, which ended in the last week of 2022. With the payments made throughout the year and the anticipation of R$ 227.5 million, the concessionaire’s financial debt was reduced to BRL 1.9 billion (financing until 2032).
The renegotiation also allows the concessionaire to make new extraordinary amortizations in the future, generating an estimated reduction in interest of R$ 30 million per year and allowing the settlement of the total amount of the financing five years before the due dates, which extend until 2032.
The airport won the revalidation of its CEIV-Pharma certificate, valid from December 31, 2022 to December 30, 2025. With this, the terminal is accredited as one of the main airports in Brazil in the import and export of industry products pharmaceutical.
The certification is provided by IATA (International Air Transport Association) and aims to guarantee the standardization of the logistical link to comply with “Good Practices for Handling Pharmaceutical Products”.
The certification revalidation process began in October 2022, with approximately 285 items of the IATA checklist being audited, with the scope of the import and export processes of cargo from the so-called “Health Line”. Viracopos achieved certification for the first time in 2019.
In addition to the processes for receiving the Linha Saúde cargo, quality management items are also checked, such as change planning and analysis of risks and opportunities, maintenance of cold rooms and their cleaning, among other activities that make up, directly or indirectly, the chain pharmaceutical logistics at the airport.
