Green light for Brazil's Guarulhos airport to build new VIP terminal

GRU Airport, the concessionaire of Guarulhos airport on the northern outskirts of São Paulo, has been given approval by the federal government to sign an US$80mn contract to build a new terminal.

The new area, to be called VIP Terminal, will be constructed on a 5,000m2 area, Ronei Glanzmann, national civil aviation secretary, was reported as saying by newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.

According to the official, the new terminal will be financed by an unnamed Arab group with Canadian partners and operated by executive aviation firm Jetex. It will be reserved solely for the use of passengers who have their own planes or travel in first or business class.

The timetable to start construction of the new terminal has not been stated.

VIRACOPOS AUCTION POSTPONED

In other news, the planned tender to re-offer the concession of Viracopos airport in Campinas, São Paulo state, has been postponed.

The Brazilian government authorized a two-year extension of the existing airport operation contract with Aeroportos Brasil Viracopos (ABV), it was reported in the country's official gazette.

ABV, comprising local infrastructure company Triunfo Participações e Investimento (TPI), engineering firms UTC Engenharia and Egis, has already announced its intention to return the concession, but there is an ongoing arbitration process between the company and the government to stipulate the compensation to be paid from ending the concession.

The government was planning to re-offer the concession sometime this year.

The original concession auction was held in 2012. The group decided to return the concession due to financial problems faced by UTC and TPI, its two main shareholders, and because projected passenger and cargo demand did not materialize in the first few years of the contract.