From the Newsroom
São Paulo – Regional aviation companies signed a Tourism Ministry document yesterday (4) in which they agree to start operating flights to 200 new cities. This will more than double the number of cities reached by domestic flights.
According to a statement published yesterday by the official Brazilian Tourism Agency (Embratur), of the 5,500 Brazilian municipalities, just 116 are reached by civil aviation, which includes 14 regional and six national airlines.
The signing took place yesterday morning, during the 2nd National Congress of Regional Aviation (Conar), in Brasília. During an address at the event, tourism minister Walfrido dos Mares Guia stated that expansion in the number of flights "is essential for accomplishment of the targets forecasted in the National Tourism Plan (PNT)."
The plan forecasts that, up to 2007, the flow of foreign visitor to the country should be tripled, to 9 million and the number of domestic travellers should rise from 33 million to 65 million. Apart from that, opening 200 new airports should generate around 10,000 jobs, stated Guia.
