Santos Dumont Airport Jet Charters

Santos Dumont Airport, named after the renowned Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos Dumont (1873–1932), serves as the second major airport for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The airport is operated by Infraero.

Santos Dumont Airport operates with slot restrictions, allowing a maximum of 19 operations per hour. This restriction places it among the five airports in Brazil subject to such limitations.

Originally known as Calabouço Airport, the airport’s history dates back to the early 1930s. In 1934, to accommodate the increasing number of land operations, land was reclaimed from the sea to create the airport’s initial runway, measuring 1,300 feet (400 m) in length. The runway was extended to 2,300 feet (700 m) in 1936, and on November 30th of the same year, it received its first commercial flight. The airport complex was officially inaugurated on October 16, 1936, and was subsequently named Santos Dumont Airport.

As international operations gradually shifted to Galeão Airport, which opened in 1952, Rio de Janeiro–Santos Dumont lost its status as an international hub. The airport now primarily handles domestic air traffic for short-to-medium haul flights within Rio de Janeiro, as well as general aviation and military operations.

While Santos Dumont Airport is conveniently located near the city center, its location poses challenges due to the presence of Sugarloaf Mountain along the direct approach path. As a result, aircraft approaching the airport must navigate the mountainous terrain beyond the two runways in either of two ways: by flying over the entrance of the bay and then swiftly maneuvering behind Sugarloaf Mountain onto the runway’s glide path, or by flying over central Rio and negotiating the mountainous terrain surrounding Sugarloaf Mountain and the central-western region of Rio.