Campo Grande International Airport
Campo Grande International Airport (CGR)
Campo Grande International Airport acts as a strategic stopover point for Mercosur member countries, as Mato Grosso do Sul shares borders with Paraguay. In the southern region of the Central-West, the state is also a neighbor of Bolivia, creating an important gateway into Brazil for Latin American countries. In addition to receiving visitors interested in ecological tours, Mato Grosso do Sul generates important business tourism, mainly due to the agroindustry.
Located seven kilometers from the center of the capital Campo Grande, the terminal began to be managed by Aena Brasil on October 13, 2023, after the concessionaire purchased a block of 11 Brazilian airports at auction by the National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac), held in 2022. As it has already managed, since 2020, six terminals in the Northeast, Aena Brasil manages, in total, 17 airports in the country. The company is part of the Spanish group Aena, considered the largest airport operator in the world in terms of number of passengers.
Campo Grande airport was born as a strategic point for aircraft traffic in the Center-West of the country, even before the creation of the state Mato Grosso do Sul, in 1977.
In 1932, the then Brazilian Ministry of War, now Ministry of Defense, created an Aviation Detachment Center in the city of Campo Grande, as a support base for aircraft transiting this region of Brazil. At the time, a 600-meter-long landing strip was built to serve the new base. The following year, the Army expanded the runway to 1,400 meters.
With the infrastructure, the first Border Air Mail line was created in 1934. Parallel to the airport in Mato Grosso do Sul, the Campo Grande Air Base, known as the Pantanal Sentinel, dates back to 1945.
Commercial air operations only began in 1950, thanks to the development of the region that is home to the Pantanal biome. Campo Grande International Airport was opened in 1953, with the then president Getúlio Vargas arriving by plane and landing on the runway.
Little by little, the airport expanded its infrastructure to receive more flights and visitors. It was only in January 1964 that the unit gained its first passenger terminal. The civil and military aircraft parking aprons were built on rigid pavements, with the same support as the existing runway, in 1967.
Upon taking over management of the airport in 1975, Infraero provided for the expansion of the civil apron and began investing in the unit's infrastructure. Two years later, after the creation of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, the company expanded the passenger terminal from 1,500 to 5,000 square meters. With another project in 1998, the airport gained a new international boarding area, and the passenger terminal now measures 6,597.51 square meters.
To guarantee its users increasingly comfort and safety, for the next 30 years, the concession period, Aena Brasil will modernize Campo Grande International Airport, preparing the unit for the demands of the present and the future.