History
As it was the case with many important Brazilian airports located in strategic points along the coast, Afonso Pena, was built by the Brazilian Air Force Ministry in partnership with the United States Army during the Second World War. However since its construction was completed only in 1945, short before the end of the war, Afonso Pena never saw heavy military movement. In 1946 most of its movement comprised civil operations.
The original passenger terminal was in use until 1959 when a brand new terminal was built. This second terminal is today used for cargo operations. In 1996, the present passenger terminal was built.
The main problem of the airport are the unstable weather conditions of the region, particularly mist in the morning hours of winter and the fact that the auxiliary runway 11/29 is too small and plagued with old equipment. There are also plans to upgrade runway 15/33 from an ILS CAT II runway to ILS CAT III.
Since the bottleneck for the airport is the cargo capacity, the main runway was lengthened in 2008 to allow cargo flights to operate with greater loads and the cargo terminal was upgraded.
The terminal is 26,000 m², has 6 jetways, and is capable of handling 4.5 million passengers annually. There are 800 parking places. The airport complex includes a small museum, a playcenter and a mall with 60 stores inside the main terminal.
Read more about this topic: Afonso Pena International Airport
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