The airport of the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre reopened its doors this Friday after more than five months closed, following the strong floods that hit the capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Floods killed 183 people and displaced around half a million in Rio Grande do Sul.
“With With nearly 80% of its operational capacity, the Salgado Filho airport, the main air transport hub in the Southern region, resumes its air operations next Monday”, indicated the Brazilian government in a statement, recalling that the reopening “occurs after more than 160 days since the state went through one of the worst climate events recorded in recent decades.”
The Salgado Filho International Airport, managed by the German company Fraport, is once again operating with 71 domestic flights per day and around 9,000 passengers, reaching 100% of its capacity in December.
International flights to Panama City also return in December and, starting in January, routes to Buenos Aires, Lima and Santiago de Chile begin.
At the official reopening ceremony and after landing at the terminal, the Minister of Ports and Airports of Brazil, Silvio Costa Filho, highlighted that one of the government’s great missions is to restore tourist activity in the state.
“A state that represents more than 11 million inhabitants. We know what the airport represents for the GDP of Rio Grande do Sul, for business tourism, for leisure tourism and for the flow of cargo transportation.“He recalled, according to the statement.
At the beginning of May, the Torrential rains caused sudden flooding of rivers that surround Porto Alegre and those that run entirely along the runways of the airport, the tenth busiest in Brazil before the tragedy.
The closure forced the inhabitants of this city, whose metropolitan region has more than four million inhabitants, to resort to military bases adapted for emergencies or to travel hundreds of kilometers to catch a flight.
The federal government has financed 426 million reais (about 69 million euros) to restore the airport.
Source: Observadora
