Brazil’s government has declared that the flood-hit Porto Alegre airport will be re-opened to commercial flights from 21 October.
Minister for ports and airports Silvio Costa Filho has authorised carriers to resume ticket sales to the airport and says its operator expects full capacity to be restored from 16 December.
Porto Alegre’s Salgado Filho airport suffered extensive flooding as a result of destructive storms that hit the state of Rio Grande do Sul at the end of April.
Flights were suspended from 3 May.
The government says restoration of service will be “gradual”, beginning with 128 aircraft movements over a 14h period, and civil aviation regulator ANAC will decide on initial slot allocation for airlines seeking to resume flights.
Costa Filho says the measure “will, without a doubt, accelerate the recovery of the state’s economy”.
Porto Alegre airport’s operator, Fraport Brasil, says the runway remained submerged for 23 days – an “unprecedented” event which has demanded “rigorous analysis” to ascertain the extent of water damage.
The 3,200m runway had been in use for just two years, after a programme to extend the old 2,280m runway was completed in April 2022.
Initial cleaning and assessment work following the flood concluded that more than 2,000m of runway needed partial reconstruction. While the concrete base was intact, the operator says the upper layers were “compromised” and some 45cm of asphalt required removal.
A 500m section of the new runway suffered less impact, although its asphalt was affected to a depth of 15cm.
Fraport Brasil says a second phase of work, set for completion in October, will recover areas necessary to resume partial operation, including 1,300m of runway plus large sections of the apron and taxiways.
The third phase, scheduled to begin in October, will concentrate on areas unaffected by initial restoration of aircraft movements.
Fraport Brasil estimates the cost of restoration at R$700 million ($127 million).
