Brazil vows $2.5B to revamp airports

The government plans to spend 3.9 billion reals (US$2.5 billion) to expand and modernize airports, including in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia, by the end of 2010, airport authority Infraero said.

Brazil's 67 airports now handle 4 million passengers a month, but that number is expected to double as soccer fans flood 18 Brazilian cities set to host World Cup games in 2014, Brazilian General Aviation Association vice president Adalberto Febeliano said last week.

Upgrades must begin immediately in order to meet that deadline, he said. Sao Paulo, South America's biggest city and a major hub for international flights, is in most urgent need of work, although a new terminal is planned for one of the city's two airports, he added.

One of Rio de Janeiro's international airport terminals is also being expanded and plans are under way to enlarge the airport in Brasilia, the nation's capital.

Brazil's aviation sector faces chronic underinvestment in radar, runways and other infrastructure, pilots and aviation experts say. Safety upgrades, backup systems and air traffic control training have been delayed for years, even amid a boom in flights across robust South American economies.

Radar failures and air traffic controller strikes prompted days of mass cancelations and delays nationwide last year, stranding thousands of passengers. A TAM airlines jet barreled off the rain-soaked runway at Sao Paulo's Congonhas airport in July 2007, killing 199 people. The cause of the crash has not yet been determined.