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São Paulo/Guarulhos - Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (Cumbica) Aeroporto Internacional de São Paulo/Guarulhos - Governador André Franco Montoro (Cumbica)
IATA: GRU ICAO: SBGR
Summary
Airport type	Public/Military
Operator	Infraero
Serves	São Paulo
Location	Guarulhos, Brazil
Hub for	Gol, Tam
Elevation AMSL	2,459 ft / 750 m
Coordinates	23°25′55″S 46°28′10″W
Website	Infraero GRU
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 09R/27L 3,000 9,843 Asphalt 09L/27R 3,700 12,139 Asphalt
Statistics (2009)
Passengers 21,607,303 Aircraft operations 209,638 Metric tonnes of cargo 337,627
Statistics: Infraero Sources: Airport Website

São Paulo/Guarulhos – Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (IATA: GRU, ICAO: SBGR), also known as Cumbica International Airport, is a major Brazilian airport, the country's busiest by passenger traffic, located in the district of Cumbica, in the city of Guarulhos in metropolitan São Paulo. The airport is located 25 km (15 mi) from Downtown São Paulo. It began operations in 1985.

A hub in South America, Guarulhos is Brazil's busiest airport by both passenger traffic and aircraft movements, handling 21,607,303 passengers and 209,638 aircraft movements in 2009. By cargo traffic, it is the second busiest airport in Latin America only exceeded by El Dorado International Airport of Bogotá, also the airport is the 36th busiest airport in the world. However, this airport was put in the world's third place in number of delayed flights by Forbes magazine in January, 2008.

Comprising 3,425 acres (14 km²), of which 5 km² is urbanized area, the airport's infrastructure has its own highway system: Rodovia Helio Smidt from the airport is connected to Rodovia Presidente Dutra and Rodovia Ayrton Senna.

All passenger traffic is divided between two terminals (TPS1 and TPS2). With 260 check-in counters, the airport is operational 24 hours a day. 39 national and international airlines fly from São Paulo-Guarulhos to 28 different countries, as well as more than 100 cities in Brazil and the world. Air China is the newest airline to start operations at the airport in December 2009, with flights to China.

Airport plans call for the construction of two additional terminals (TPS3 and TPS4) and a third runway, bringing the airport to full capacity for passenger and cargo operations. On 28 November 2001, a federal law changed the airport name to honor the ex-governor of São Paulo state, André Franco Montoro, deceased in 1999, although the official name is hardly ever used by locals, who normally refer to it as Guarulhos Airport or, even more commonly, just Cumbica, after the Guarulhos neighbourhood and name of the Brazilian Air Force base that exists at the site in which the airport was built. The Tropic of Capricorn passes directly through the southern tip of the airport.

The airport can service up to 20.5 million passengers a year.

Guarulhos currently operates with slot restrictions of a maximum of 45 operations/hour, being one of the two airports in Brazil with such restrictions.

Airport expansion

The Southeast Regional Administration of Infraero is undertaking a major 1 billion reais development at Guarulhos, which is being financed out of the national growth plan. Central to this is a third terminal, which will add another 12 million passenger capacity to the 17 million of the existing two terminals, an airport express rail link to the city and a high-speed train connecting the airport to Rio de Janeiro and the city of Campinas together with all these cities main airports (specially Campinas's Viracopos International which is planned to be the country's largest airport by 2025 with capacity for over 60 million passengers annually).

The long-term plan also envisages a fourth terminal. The master plan forecasts traffic reaching some 25 million annually by 2013.

The preparation of bids for the construction of the third terminal is in the final stages, with prediction to be concluded for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Construction of the airport express train has also been given high priority. More than 25 Brazilian and international companies have expressed an interest in taking this project forward.

Plans for a third runway were considerate "technically impracticable" and cancelled on January 2008. The main focus of the state administration (Infraero) have been the third terminal and the development of Viracopos Airport in an attempt to release the pressure over the airports in São Paulo, one of the world's largest cities.

Terminals, airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations	Terminal/Wing
Aerolíneas Argentinas	Buenos Aires-Aeroparque, Buenos Aires-Ezeiza	1A
Aeroméxico	Mexico City	1A
Aerosur	Santa Cruz de la Sierra-Viru Viru	2D
Air Canada	Toronto-Pearson	2D
Air China	Beijing-Capital, Madrid	1A
Air France	Paris-Charles de Gaulle	1A
Alitalia	Rome-Fiumicino	1A
American Airlines	Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami, New York-JFK	2D
Avianca	Bogotá	1A
British Airways	Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, London-Heathrow	1A
Continental Airlines	Houston-Intercontinental, Newark	2D
Copa Airlines	Panama City	2D
Delta Air Lines	Atlanta, New York-JFK	1A
El Al	Tel Aviv	1B
Emirates	Dubai	2D
Gol Airlines	Asunción, Belém-Val de Cães, Belo Horizonte-Confins, Brasília, Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Campo Grande, Cuiabá, Curitiba-Afonso Pena, Florianópolis, Fortaleza, Foz de Iguaçu, Goiânia, João Pessoa, Maceió, Manaus, Montevideo, Natal, Porto Alegre, Porto Seguro, Recife, Rio de Janeiro-Galeão, Salvador da Bahia, Santa Cruz de la Sierra-Viru Viru, Vitória	2C
Gol Airlines operated by Varig	Aruba, Bogotá, Caracas, Punta Cana, Rio de Janeiro-Galeão	2C
Iberia	Madrid	1A
Japan Airlines	New York-JFK, Tokyo-Narita	1A
KLM	Amsterdam	1A
Korean Air	Los Angeles, Seoul-Incheon	2D
LAN Argentina	Buenos Aires-Ezeiza	2D
LAN Airlines	Santiago de Chile	2D
LAN Perú	Lima	2D
Lufthansa	Frankfurt, Munich	2D
Mexicana	Mexico City	1A
OceanAir	Belo Horizonte-Confins, Brasília, Campo Grande, Florianópolis, Passo Fundo, Petrolina, Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro-Santos Dumont, Salvador da Bahia	1B
Passaredo	Cuiabá, Goiânia, Ribeirão Preto, São José do Rio Preto, Uberlândia	1A
PLUNA	Montevideo	2C
Puma Air	Belém-Val de Cães [begins 8 April], Macapá [begins 8 April}
South African Airways	Johannesburg	2D
Spearhead Airlines	Auckland, Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Santiago de Chile, Sydney	2D
Swiss International Air Lines	Zürich	2D
TAAG Angola Airlines	Luanda	2D
TACA Perú	Lima	2D
TAM Airlines	Aracaju, Belém-Val de Cães, Belo Horizonte-Confins, Brasília, Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Campo Grande, Caracas, Curitiba-Afonso Pena, Florianópolis, Fortaleza, Foz de Iguaçu, Frankfurt, Goiânia, João Pessoa, Lima, London-Heathrow, Maceió, Madrid, Manaus, Miami, Milan-Malpensa, Montevideo, Natal, New York-JFK, Orlando, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Porto Alegre, Porto Seguro, Recife, Rio de Janeiro-Galeão, Salvador da Bahia, Santiago de Chile, Vitória	1B
TAM Paraguayan Airlines	Asunción, Ciudad del Este	1B
TAP Portugal	Lisbon, Porto	2D
TRIP	Cascavel, Criciúma, Cuiabá, Governador Valadares, Ipatinga, Joinville, Juiz de Fora, Maringá, Navegantes	1A
Turkish Airlines	Istanbul-Atatürk	2D
United Airlines	Chicago-O'Hare, Washington-Dulles	1A
WebJet Linhas Aéreas	Belo Horizonte-Confins, Brasilia, Curitiba-Afonso Pena, Fortaleza, Natal, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro-Santos Dumont, Salvador da Bahia	1A

Cities with direct international passenger airlinks with São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport

Traffic statistics

Interior view of the airport.

Year	Total passengers
2006	15,759,181
2007	18,795,596
2008	20,400,304
2009	21,607,303

Ground transport

The Helio Smidt Freeway (SP-019) that serves as access to the airport.

There are several transportation options available at Guarulhos Airport. The most inexpensive way to travel to and from the airport is by bus. There is a public bus that runs every 30 minutes and travels to the city center of São Paulo. The arriving bus terminal, is in downtown São Paulo. Counters at the airport for this bus service can be found at the Arrivals area of both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. From the airport, there is also a shuttle bus that stops at many of the major centers, as well as the major beaches in the area. One of the nicer buses available in the area is the air-conditioned Empresa Real bus service that drives along the coast and into the city. There is also an executive city bus, tickets can be purchased on the Arrivals floor. Travel time on the buses to the city center of São Paulo takes around 30–50 minutes, depending on the traffic.

There are many taxi services available at the airport. The taxi stands are located outside the two terminals just outside the Baggage Claim area. It is recommended that travelers avoid the RDE taxi desk and instead go to the Rio de Janeiro State Tourism Authority desk. At this desk, pre-paid taxi vouchers are available, as well as tourist information about São Paulo and the surrounding areas. If you do not purchase the pre-paid taxi vouchers, make sure that the meter has been cleared from the previous fare when you get into the taxi. Before departing, make sure you get the price of the fare for the destination you are heading to, so there are no misunderstandings with the driver. A taxi to downtown São Paulo takes around 30 minutes depending on the traffic. Generally, the taxis from the airport have fixed prices into the city and will usually cost around $30.00. There are also car rental facilities at the airport. Getting to the airport by car is very easy, and routes go through either the Ayrton Senna highway or Presidente Dutra highway and signs direct drivers to the airport.

Panoramic view of the airport

Accidents and incidents

• 21 March 1989: Transbrasil flight 801, a cargo Boeing 707-349C registration PT-TCS, flying from Manaus to Guarulhos, crashed at the district of Vila Barros in Guarulhos, shortly before touch-down at runway 09R. That day, at 12h00 the runway was going to be closed for maintenance and the crew decided to speed up procedures to touch-down before closure (it was already 11:54). In a hurry, one of the crew members, by mistake, activated the air-dynamic brakes and the aircraft lost too much speed to have enough aerodynamic support (Stall). As a consequence the aircraft crashed at approximately 2 km from the airport. There were 25 fatalities which of these three were crew members and 22 were civilians on the accident site. As well as the 22 fatalities, there were also over 100 injured on the ground.

See also

• List of the busiest airports in Brazil

Gallery

• 
  Inaugural plaque at the airport
• 
  The control tower
• 
  Guarulhos Airport at dusk
• 
  Approach Lighting System CAT II at Guarulhos Airport
• 
  External view of Terminal 1 (TPS1)
• 
  Internal view of Terminal 1 (TPS1)
• 
  External view of Terminal 2 (TPS2)

External links

• Airport information for SBGR at Great Circle Mapper. Source: DAFIF (effective October 2006).
• Current weather for SBGR at NOAA/NWS
• Accident history for GRU at Aviation Safety Network