Congonhas Airport opened in 1936 on a plateau at the edge of Sao Paulo, built partly because an older field kept flooding. That older field, Campo de Marte, sat too low and very often turned to mud after storms. Its handsome art deco terminal, finished in 1940 and still used today, was for years the most modern airport building in Brazil.
The city grew around it fast, and by the 1950s Congonhas was Brazil's busiest airport, boxed in by neighborhoods with no room to grow. When Guarulhos opened in 1985, it took over international flights, but Congonhas kept the shuttle to Rio de Janeiro, called the Ponte Aerea, or air bridge, running since 1959. That shuttle once let travelers show up without a booking and board the next scheduled flight.
Its short runways and tight location make it hard to fly into. A 2007 accident, when a jet overran the main runway in heavy rain and hit a building, killing 199 people, forced major safety changes to runway grooving and drainage systems. Congonhas today is strictly domestic, tightly controlled by slots, meaning scheduled time windows airlines are allowed to use for takeoff and landing, and a night curfew.