Santos Dumont Airport

Santos Dumont Airport opened in 1936 on landfill built into Guanabara Bay, right beside downtown Rio de Janeiro. It is named for Alberto Santos Dumont, the Brazilian flying pioneer who flew the 14 bis in Paris in 1906. Its first terminal, a modernist building finished in the 1930s, is a protected landmark still used every day. Santos Dumont sits closer to travelers than any other airport in the city.

For its first decades, Santos Dumont was Rio's main airport, handling both domestic and international flights. In 1959, it became the Rio end of the Ponte Aerea, the air bridge that shuttled passengers to and from Sao Paulo all day long. That early shuttle let passengers arrive without a booking and simply board the next departure. The shuttle still remains the airport's core business today.

International and long-haul flights moved to Galeao once its international terminal opened in 1977. That left Santos Dumont as a short-haul airport prized for sitting just minutes from Rio's financial district. Its short runways and bay setting limit it to narrowbodies and turboprops, meaning smaller planes with propellers turned by a jet engine. In 2024, the federal government capped passenger numbers and restricted several routes, pushing traffic back toward Galeao.

Santos Dumont has two short parallel runways, both built on reclaimed land in Guanabara Bay. The main one, 02L/20R, is only about 1,300 meters long, which limits flights to lighter narrowbodies and turboprops. Approaches curve in over the bay past Sugarloaf Mountain, giving one of the most photographed landings anywhere.

Latam, Gol, and Azul run frequent shuttles to Sao Paulo and other domestic cities from a compact terminal a short walk from the business district. A 2024 federal rule caps annual passenger numbers and limits which routes may be operated, sending future growth to Galeao instead.