President Castro Pinto - João Pessoa International Airport
President Castro Pinto - João Pessoa International Airport (JPA)
President Castro Pinto - João Pessoa International Airport has the largest airport site among the six northeastern terminals managed by Aena Brasil — Recife (PE), Maceió (AL), João Pessoa (PB), Campina Grande (PB), Aracaju (SE) and Juazeiro do Norte (CE). With nearly four million square meters, including landing and takeoff lanes, SBJP has the capacity to serve 2.3 million passengers per year and room to grow even more.
Over time, such characteristics have allowed the airport to continue to develop simultaneously with the demands of the city where it is settled and, even today, allow a significant opportunity for more growth prospects.
In 2020, the unit began to be managed by Aena Brasil, after the company won the concession auction of the National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac) held in 2019. According to the concession contract signed, the airport is being expanded and modernized.
The first passenger terminal and the airport's runway were built in 1957 by the Ministry of Aeronautics and operated by the former Department of Civil Aviation -DAC, which installed a Flight Protection Detachment on the site. Three years later, the equipment gained a name and a surname, becoming Presidente Castro Pinto Airport, in honor of the local politician João Pereira de Castro Pinto (1863 - 1944), who was governor of Paraíba, when the most authoritative position of the Executive state was called "president".
Between 1982 and 1985, the airport gained an Air Cargo Terminal (Teca) and a new passenger terminal, but to become the airport we know today, the modernist building signed by the office of the renowned architect Sérgio Bernardes, with two lateral courtyards, that formed the design of a 14-Bis plane, still needed to undergo other transformations.
From 2004 to 2005, one wing of the building was closed and acclimatized. However, it was only in 2008 that João Pessoa began to offer its visitors a fully air-conditioned airport and a larger passenger terminal, with new departure lounges and check-in counters. The reform also made possible improvements in the parking lot and reinforcements on the track and in the courtyard, in addition to the construction of the administrative building.
Expanded and prepared to take on new challenges, in 2010 the equipment, which had already received some flights from foreign countries, was recognized by the Brazilian authorities as an international airport and, in the following year, surpassed the number of more than one million passengers in a year.
Since the arrival of Aena Brasil, President Castro Pinto - João Pessoa International Airport has been undergoing repairs and renovations to meet present and future demands. The company is part of the Spanish company Aena, considered the largest airport operator in the world in terms of number of passengers.
In Brazil, the concessionaire manages 17 terminals. In the six units in the Northeast ran by the concessionaire, the company is investing R$1.4 billion in structural works, which aim to bring an increase in airport capacity between 60% and 100%. Once the work is completed, the airports will have sufficient infrastructure to advance further on their growth paths, contributing to the development of each location.