Airport type Public Serves Belo Horizonte Focus city for Gol Transportes Aéreos Elevation 828 m Passenger count 11,303,284 | Operator BH Airport Location Confins, Brazil Code CNF Phone +55 31 3689-2700 | |
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Hub for Azul Brazilian Airlines Address Área de Proteção Ambiental Carste de Lagoa Santa - LMG-800, s/n, Confins - MG, 33500-900, Brazil Similar Estapar Estaciona, Belo Horizonte Carlos Dr, Terminal Conexão Aeroporto, Expresso Unir, Avis Aluguel de Carros C Profiles | ||
Cnf belo horizonte international airport brazil
Belo Horizonte - Tancredo Neves/Confins International Airport (IATA: CNF, ICAO: SBCF), formerly called Confins International Airport, is the main airport serving Belo Horizonte and Metropolitan Area, Brazil, located in the adjoining municipality of Confins. Since 2 September 1986 the airport is named after Tancredo de Almeida Neves (1910–1985), President-elect of Brazil. It is operated by BH Airport S.A..
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Tancredo neves confins international airport a day of filming on the airport tarmac
History
The airport was built by Infraero and inaugurated in 1984. Its purpose was to lessen the congestion at Pampulha Airport, which at the time was operating at 120% of its capacity of 1.3 million passengers per year. It was expected that by 1990, passenger movement at Confins would be nearly 2 million passengers per year. However, it surpassed the 1 million passenger mark only 22 years later. Presently its maximum operational capacity is 13 million passengers per year.
After its inauguration, just a small fraction of the capacity of Confins was used. This was partly due to its distance from downtown Belo Horizonte and, until recently, to the lack of satisfactory transportation alternatives for the pricey (about USD40) taxi rides. The over-crowded Pampulha Airport remained the airport of choice.
In order to revert this scenario, in March 2005 the government of the state of Minas Gerais with the support of agencies of the Federal government decided to restrict Pampulha to operations of aircraft with capacity of up to 50 passengers. In the months thereafter, most operations were forced to move to Confins and the airport gained a new momentum. At that time, 130 flights were transferred from Pampulha to Confins, increasing annual passenger flow from 350,000 to around 3.0 million that year.
The problems related to the distance of Confins to downtown Belo Horizonte were lessened by recent projects such as the improvement of the highway that links the city center to the airport (MG-10 highway), part of a larger project called Linha Verde (Green Line), which seeks to reduce the time needed to reach the airport. Another project called the "Industrial Airport" in underway. In this project the government will exempt tax of businesses interested in settling their operations near the airport.
Its cargo facilities have a capacity of handling 18.000 tones (39.682.000 lb) and the warehouse has 6.400 m² (68.889 ft²).
The main maintenance facilities of Gol Airlines are located at this airport.
On 26 April 2011 it was confirmed that in order to speed-up much needed renovation and upgrade works, private companies would be granted a concession to explore some Infraero airports - among them, in a later phase, Confins. The plan was confirmed on 31 May 2011 and it was added that Infraero would retain 49% of the shares of each privatized airport and that negotioations were expected to be concluded in the first half of 2012.
On 22 November 2013 the Brazilian Government had a bidding process to determine the operator of the airport from 2014 until 2044. The group BH Airport formed by CCR (75%) and the administrator of Munich and Zurich Airports (25%) won the competition.
On September 16, 2015, a provisional international terminal - terminal 3 - was opened. Since that day terminal 1 handles only domestic operations, while a new terminal 2 is under construction. its opening is expected to be held in November 2016 increasing the Airport capacity to 22 million passengers per year.
Future developments
On 31 August 2009, the previous concessionary, Infraero, unveiled a BRL342.3 million (USD180.3 million; EUR126.4 million) investment plan to upgrade Tancredo Neves International Airport, focusing on the preparations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The investment was supposed to be distributed as follows:
As of March 2016, only the parking lot and the apron expansion works have been completed. After many successive postponements due to budget cuts and judicial disputes between the airport administration, Infraero, the federal government and the contractors, the lengthening of the runway to 3,600 metres (11,800 ft) is scheduled to be completed in June 2016. The new passenger terminal is planned to be opened "at the end of the year" and will now be fully financed by the BH Airport concessionary.
Accidents and incidents
Access
The airport is located 38 km (24 mi) north of downtown Belo Horizonte. It is regularly served by buses, taxis and Executive Airport Shuttle Buses. When using buses, transfer to the subway of Belo Horizonte is possible.