Viracopos International Airport
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The Viracopos airport ( Viracopos means in Portuguese: glasses turn ) is an important traffic center in Campinas, Brazil and size as the largest air cargo hub in South America. For TAM Cargo Viracopos is the main hub of their air freight. Since the Guarulhos airport is at full capacity and can not be further expanded, Viracopos Airport will again become vital for passenger traffic.
Traffic
The Viracopos airport is located 14 km southwest from the city of Campinas, 99 km north- west of São Paulo, and belongs to the district of Vila Aeroporto. The airport is located between the Rodovia Bandeirantes and Anhanguera Rodovia highway that connects São Paulo and Brasilia Cordeirópolis with Santos. In between there are the Rodovia Santos Dumont, which establishes a direct approach and departure to the airport. Viracopos served before the completion of the center near the airport Guarulhos to 1985 as an international aviation hub of the Greater Region of São Paulo, since no long-range aircraft could land on the downtown Congonhas airport. With the acquisition of civil aviation and the completion of Guarulhos Viracopos became the main trading center for goods.
Importance
He is now the most important cargo airport in the state of São Paulo and the second most important in Brazil, but in recent years, passenger traffic has increased steadily. Main user is the budget airline Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras. It connects the sub-region of Campinas with most Brazilian cities. International fly into Buenos Aires, Lisbon, Montevideo and Santiago de Chile. The area around Campinas has become the Brazilian Silicon Valley; here are located numerous technology companies, other industrial companies, research and development facilities as well as several universities.
In 2011, the airport recorded compared to 2010 growth of 50 per cent in passenger traffic and it is expected that the passenger and freight traffic by 2015 exceed the capacity of the airport, which points to the possibility of congestion during the Football World Cup 2014.
Expansion by 2015
The airport was privatized in 2012. From 14 November 2012, the consortium Aero Porto Brasil took over the airport progressively from the Infraero. Since mid- February 2013 Viracopos is fully and exclusively managed by Aero Porto Brasil, together with the terminal.
With a planned large expansion of air traffic center Viracopos will be expanded to Brazil's largest airport. Here Infraero and the later owners Aero Porto Brasil is supported by the Dutch airport consultancy Naco. The construction of a second take-off and landing runway is already - not as initially scheduled until 2017 - as early as 2013 to be tackled [ deprecated].
Only the area of the passenger terminal is tripled from 190 051 m² on 568 596 m². The logistics complex at the airport will be expanded by 77,400 m² to 177,000 m² in two phases to more than double. The first phase includes the construction of a "live" cargo terminal and a restricted cargo terminal. In the second phase, national and international cargo areas are extended which means the construction of a new 10,000 m² courier cargo terminal.
Through a planned high-speed rail for the movement of trains over São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro and with a calculated capacity of 55 million passengers annually, the airport in the future also the largest in Latin America should be. The extension of Viracopos was necessary because the two main airports of São Paulo, Congonhas and Guarulhos already working to the limits of their capacities and their development due to its proximity to residential areas is impossible. Currently being built in Viracopos on a second runway. They should be completed in 2013. [ Deprecated]
Several international cargo airlines fly Viracopos several times a week to, among others, Lufthansa Cargo, Cargolux, Centurion Air Cargo, Lan Chile Cargo, KLM Cargo, Martinair Cargo, Tampa Cargo, Cargo TAP Portugal and Fedex.
Origin of the name
There are two versions about the origin of the name Viracopos. The first includes the beginning of the century indicate that there had been a misunderstanding between the priest and the residents of the neighborhood during an annual fair. This resulted then in a general carousing and quarrels in which the festival booths were torn down or overturned during the hopeless confusion. The word Viracopos ( " glasses turn " ) later used the priests in sermons, to refer to the event.
Another version says that formerly stood on the site of the present airport bar, where drovers have met regularly for a comfortable exchange of views and also for drinking. So was " Viracopos " first name to the district and later also for the airport.