Rio Grande do Norte/São Gonçalo do Amarante–Governador Aluízio Alves International Airport is an international airport in São Gonçalo do Amarante, Brazil serving Natal and its metropolitan area. The airport is operated by Zurich Airport Brasil.

History

The airport was built to replace Augusto Severo International Airport. In 1998, Infraero started the planning and construction of the airport. In 2011 the concession of the unfinished facility was auctioned and the winner would have to finish its construction, including the terminal building and control tower. The project envisaged an intermodal airport, focusing both on passenger and cargo transportation. The complex was expected to have the highest aircraft traffic in the North East of Brazil. On May 12, 2011, the National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil (ANAC) released a document opening the concession of the unfinished airport to private entrepreneurs. The auction to choose the winner took place on August 22, 2011, and the winner was Consortium Inframérica, which is formed by the Brazilian Engineering Group Engevix (50%) and the Argentinean Group Corporación América (50%). The latter operates 52 airports in seven countries. In 2013, it was decreed that the name of the airport would be inspired in part from former governor of the state of Rio Grande do Norte Aluízio Alves. Consortium Inframérica was given three years to build the passenger and cargo terminals, and was authorized to commercially exploit the facility for 25 years. Differently from other Brazilian airports in the process of privatization, in which the state operator Infraero retained 49% of the shares, in the case of Natal Consortium Inframérica got 100% of the shares and Infraero held no participation. The airport opened for operations on May 31, 2014, when airlines moved their domestic operations to the facility. International operations were moved a few days later. The airport is the first in Brazil operated by a private sector company. On March 10, 2021, it was announced that the National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil had approved a new concession process for the airport, as per request from Consortium Inframérica made on March 5, 2020. On May 19, 2023, Zurich Airport Brasil won a 30-year concession to operate the airport.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Statistics

Following is the number of passenger, aircraft and cargo movements at the airport, according to Inframérica (2014-2022) reports: Note:

Access

The airport is located 25 km from downtown Natal.