Greater Natal International Airport: Difference between revisions

Airport in São Gonçalo do Amarante, Brazil

Rio Grande do Norte/São Gonçalo do Amarante–Governador Aluízio Alves International Airport (IATA: NAT, ICAO: SBSG) is an airport in São Gonçalo do Amarante, Brazil serving Natal and its metropolitan area.^[4]

The airport is managed by Consortium Inframérica.

History[edit]

The airport was built to replace Augusto Severo International Airport.
Planning started in 2007 and envisaged an intermodal airport, focusing both on passenger and cargo transportation.^[5] The complex was expected to have the highest aircraft traffic in the North East of Brazil.^[6]

On May 12, 2011, the National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil (ANAC) released a document opening the concession of the airport to private entrepreneurs.^[7] The auction to choose the winner took place on August 22, 2011.^[8] The winner was the Inframérica Consortium, formed by the Brazilian Engineering Group Engevix^[9] (50%) and the Argentinean Group Corporación América^[10] (50%).^[11][12]

Inframérica Consortium was given three years to build the passenger and cargo terminals, and is authorized to commercially exploit the facility for 25 years (with one possible five-year extension). Differently from Brazilian airports in the process of privatization, in which the state oeorator Infraero retains 49% of the shares, in the case of Natal Consórcio Inframérica got 100% of the shares. On February 6, 2012, the consortium also won the concession forBrasília–Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek International Airport.^[13]

The airport opened for operations on May 31, 2014, when airlines moved their domestic operations to the facility. International operations were moved a few days later.^[14] The airport is the first in Brazil operated by a private sector company.^[15]

On March 10, 2021, it was announced that the National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil had approved a new concession process for the airport, as per a request from Consortium Inframérica on March 5, 2020. It was expected that a new bidding would take place in 2021.^[16]

Airlines and destinations[edit]

Passenger[edit]

Statistics[edit]

Busiest domestic routes from NAT (2020)^[17]

Rank	City	Passengers	Change 2019/2020	Carriers
1	São Paulo-Guarulhos, SP	255,021	042.21%	Azul Brazilian Airlines, GOL Airlines, LATAM Brazil
2	Rio de Janeiro-Galeão, RJ	88,218	051.82%	GOL Airlines, LATAM Brazil
3	Brasília, DF	85,536	041.74%	GOL Airlines, LATAM Brazil
4	Recife, PE	53,495	038.52%	Azul Brazilian Airlines
5	Fortaleza, CE	29,024	078.15%	GOL Airlines, LATAM Brazil, Voepass
6	Salvador, BA	23,279	042.62%	GOL Airlines
7	Campinas, SP	15,584	034.58%	Azul Brazilian Airlines, GOL Airlines
8	São Paulo-Congonhas, SP	11,819	029.38%	GOL Airlines
9	Belo Horizonte-Confins, MG	7,258	075.30%	Azul Brazilian Airlines
10	Goiânia, GO	2,786