Mário Ribeiro - Montes Claros Airport
Montes Claros Airport - Mário Ribeiro (MOC)
Located in the north of the state of Minas Gerais, Montes Claros is considered a regional industrial hub. In addition to large industries, the municipality has a significant commerce and service sector. In this context, Montes Claros Airport – Mário Ribeiro has assumed an increasingly relevant role in the development of the city and neighboring municipalities, facilitating and enabling integration with several capitals and other cities in Brazil.
With capacity for 1.5 million passengers per year, the Montes Claros airport terminal began to be managed by Aena Brasil on November 16, 2023, after the concessionaire purchased a block of 11 Brazilian airports in an auction by the National Aviation Agency Civil (Anac), carried out in 2022. As it already manages, since 2020, six terminals in the Northeast, Aena Brasil runs, 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.
Montes Claros Airport, located 422 kilometers from the capital of Minas Gerais, has had daily flights to Belo Horizonte since 2010. To cope with the growing movement, in 2021, the passenger terminal underwent renovations and had its physical space expanded by 153%. Currently, the lobby occupies an area of more than 1,800 square meters, with service counters equipped with scales and treadmills.
Adaptations to the unit actually began in 2011, when the passenger terminal was air-conditioned, became more accessible and gained new parking for vehicles. Infraero took over management of the airport in 1980, 50 years after governor Benedito Valadares inaugurated the Governador Valadares Aerodrome. Only in 2003, the terminal took on the official name of Montes Claros Airport – Mário Ribeiro, in honor of the doctor and politician who was a councilor, vice-mayor and mayor of the city.
In the 1940s, Panair do Brasil was the first airline to operate in the region, connecting Montes Claros to Belo Horizonte, Salvador and Recife from 1942, the year in which postal air mail services began. Nacional Serviços Aéreos also began operating at the airport in 1948, with planes for up to 24 passengers.
In the 1960s, Varig took over Panair's lines and the municipality of Montes Claros saw larger planes crossing the skies, carrying up to 40 passengers. In the following decade, in 1974, Varig implemented the jet era in Montes Claros, with the Boeing 737, with capacity for 109 passengers and more than six tons of luggage and cargo. With the operation of larger aircraft in 1977, the runway structure was reinforced, and its length increased to 2,100 meters.
Ready for new flights, in the same year, Nordeste Linhas Aéreas settled in Montes Claros, connecting the city with regular flights to the capital of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, and to Salvador, Guanambi and Vitória da Conquista, in Bahia.
Over the next 30 years, the term of Aena Brasil's concession, Montes Claros Airport – Mário Ribeiro will follow its growth path. The company will carry out works to improve the unit's infrastructure, preparing the airport for the demands of the present and future.