São Paulo – The three Arab Airlines that operate daily flights to the airport of Guarulhos, in São Paulo, are already loading and unloading passengers at the new terminal, opened on May 11th. Qatar Airways, which flies between Doha and São Paulo, and Etihad Airways, with flights between Abu Dhabi and São Paulo, started operating at the concourse on July 19th, according to the concessionaire GRU Airport, which runs the airport. Emirates Airline, with flights between Dubai and São Paulo, operates at Terminal 3 since May 25th.
Building a new passenger terminal was one of the demands made by the federal government in order to assign Guarulhos Airport to a private enterprise, in the end of 2012. The consortium that won the bid is comprised of the companies Invepar and ACSA, which runs airports in South Africa and started to build the new terminal in the beginning of 2013, when it started managing the airport.
The new terminal has an area of 192,000 square meters and is intended to serve only international flights. By September, the 25 airlines which fly internationally will be operating at this terminal. The new terminal offers more amenities to passengers, such as larger space to accommodate airline VIP rooms and even a spa.
The first company to move to Terminal 3 was Lufthansa, before the World Cup started in June. Likewise, Swiss Air, TAP, United Airlines, Air China, Air Canada, Turkish Airlines and Emirates also started to operate at the terminal before the beginning of the tournament. Soon after the tournament ended, Etihad, Qatar and Singapore Airlines moved to the new terminal.
According to the GRU Airport concessionaire, three other airlines moved to Terminal 3 this weekend. The new terminal has capacity for 12 million passengers per year. Once the 25 airlines start operating at the concourse, 80% of the flow of international flights will be operated from the new facility. Terminal 2 and terminal 4 will accomodate domestic flights. Terminal 1 will have both domestic and international flights.
*Translated by Rodrigo Mendonça
