Tancredo Neves International Airport
Located at 45 km from Belo Horizonte's downtown, Tancredo Neves International Airport, popularly known as Confins International Airport, is deemed to be one of the finest and best equipped in Latin America, although is also Brazil's idlest airport.
History
The airport was built by Infraero in the beginning of the 1980s at the cost of 1.2 billion US$, and was inaugurated in 1982. It was built to lessen congestion at Pampulha Regional Airport, which was operating at 120% of its capacity of 1.3 million passengers per year.It was expected that movement in the airport would be of nearly 2 million passengers per year in 1990, however, movement at Tancredo Neves International never went over 750.000 passengers per year, although its maximum operational capacity is 5 million passengers per year.
Planned to serve domestic and international flights, the airport serves only long-ranged domestic flights and casual international routes.
Nowadays, it´s movement is only 500.000 passengers (10% of its capacity), while congestion at Pampulha Airport continues to worsen. Tancredo Neves International is Infraero's most deficitary and idle airport and it is considered by many as a symbol of lack of appropriate planning.
Projects
Recently many projects are being developed in order to bring passengers back to the airport, including the restoration of the highway that binds the city to the airport (MG-10 highway) and fiscal exemption advantages to industries interested in settling their business near the airport area, transforming it in an industry-airport.As of 2004, a decision took in conjuntion by Infraero and the state of Minas Gerais made that every inter-state flight (coming or going out of Minas Gerais) will need to use Tancredo Neves International instead of Pampulha Regional, in order to lessen the worsening congestion problems at Pampulha (operating at 200% of its capacity as of Nov 2004). In the beginning of 2005, all domestic flights switched from Pampulha Airport to Tancredo Neves International.
General information
- Landing strip length: 3000 m (9,842 ft)
- Co-ordinates: 19° 37′ 27″ S, 043° 58′ 18″ W
- IATA airport code: CNF
- Administration: Infraero
- Annual capacity: 5.000.000
- Other passenger facilities information: 33 check-in desks, 9 gates, 9 fingers, 1,080 long term parking spaces, min. connection times Dom-Intl: 60 min, Dom-Dom: 20 min, post office, bank, Bureau de Change, restaurants, cafeterias, bars, VIP lounge, duty free shop, newsagent/tobacconist, chemist shop, gift shop, travel agent, tourist help desk, car rental, taxi service/rank, first aid, baby/parent room, disabled access/facilities
- Cargo facilities: capacity 18,000 tonnes (39,682,000 lb); Warehouse 6,400 m² (68,889 ft²), Bonded Warehouse, Transit Zone, Domestic Cargo Only, Mechanical Handling, Heated Storage, Refrigerated Storage, Deep Freeze Storage, Mortuary, Animal Quarantine, Fresh Meat Inspection, Livestock Handling, Health Officials, Security for Valuables, Dangerous Goods, Radioactive Goods, Very Large/Heavy Cargo, Express/Courier Centre, Handling Equipment: Forklift, Porta-pallets
- Transportation: It is regularly served by buses, taxis and shuttles. Transfer at Belo Horizonte's subway, when using buses, is possible.
- Airlines: Gol, TAM, Varig.