Fortaleza-Pinto Martins International Airport is the international

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

serving

Fortaleza Fortaleza (, locally , Portuguese for ''Fortress'') is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil. It belongs to the Metropolitan mesoregion of Fortaleza and microregion of Fortaleza. It is Brazil's 5th largest city and the t ...

, Brazil. It is named after ''Euclides Pinto Martins'' (1892–1924) a

Ceará Ceará (, pronounced locally as or ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is the eighth-largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the ...

-born aviator, who in 1922 was one of the pioneers of the air-link between

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. The airport is operated by Fraport Brasil. Some facilities are shared with Fortaleza Air Force Base.

History

The airport had its origins on a runway built in the 1930s and used by Ceará Flying School until 2000. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the airport was an important allied base supporting Southern

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operations. On May 13, 1952, the original name, Cocorote Airport, was changed to its present name paying tribute to Ceará-born aviator ''Euclides Pinto Martins''. In 1966 a passenger

terminal Terminal may refer to: Computing Hardware * Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together * Terminal (telecommunication), a device communicating over a line * Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output dev ...

and

apron An apron is a garment that is worn over other clothing to cover the front of the body. The word comes from old French ''napron'' meaning a small piece of cloth, however over time "a napron" became "an apron", through a linguistics process cal ...

were built. On the north area, this former passenger terminal, now serves as a General Aviation Terminal for private aircraft, where general aviation, executive, and air taxi operations occur. In 1997 the airport was upgraded to the status of international airport (Portaria 393 GM5, of June 9, 1997). From January 7, 1974, to December 31, 2017, the facility was operated by

Infraero Empresa Brasileira de Infraestrutura Aeroportuária (abr. Infraero) is a Brazilian government corporation founded in 1973, authorized by Law 5,862,INFRAERO: 40 ANOS SERVINDO PESSOAS, EMPRESAS E O BRASIL. Retrieved 01/10/2014linha%5D/ref> being ...

. Through a partnership between

, the

federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

and the

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, or ...

, a new 35,000 m² passenger terminal was built in the southern area. It was opened in February 1998. On August 31, 2009, ''Infraero'' unveiled a

BRL The Brazilian real (plural, pl. '; currency symbol, sign: R$; ISO 4217, code: BRL) is the official currency of Brazil. It is subdivided into 100 centavos. The Central Bank of Brazil is the central bank and the issuing authority. The real repl ...

525

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(US$276.6 million, EUR 193.8 million) investment plan to upgrade the International Airport focusing on the preparations for the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

, which was held in Brazil, Fortaleza being one of the venue cities. The investment focused in the renovation and enlargement of the passenger terminal, apron, and parking with completion due in November 2013. On March 16, 2017, the concession of the airport was auctioned to the consortium Fraport AG of Frankfurt, Germany, for R$425 million for use for 30 years. Among the established in the contract signed on July 28, 2017, to renew and complete the investments of

related to the passenger terminal, and the lengthening of the runway. Following the auction, between June 2017 to 2018 a transition period took place in which Fraport and Infraero managed the airport. Since January 2, 2018, Fraport is the sole administrator. On April 27, 2018 the construction of the two-story terminal extension started as well as expansion of terminal and tracks, remoulded taxi and traffic area, and redesigned the airport road system with a viaduct started. On June 25, 2019 a 60-position check-in area was opened, and finally on April 14, 2020 the renovation was completed. Presently the airport can handle 4 million passengers per year and it has 14 aircraft parking positions. Fraport had launched the idea of an Airport Real Estate project to call attention to investments in huge warehouses, shopping centres and hotels, but nothing was constructed.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo

Statistics

Accidents and incidents

*June 8, 1982: a

VASP Viação Aérea São Paulo S/A (São Paulo Airways), better known as VASP, was an airline with its head office in the VASP Building on the grounds of São Paulo–Congonhas Airport in São Paulo, Brazil. It had main bases at São Paulo's two ...

Boeing 727-212 registration PP-SRK operating flight 168 from Rio de Janeiro-Galeão to Fortaleza collided with a mountain during approach procedures south to airport. Aircraft descended too low during approach. All 137 passengers and crew died.

Access

The airport is located south of downtown Fortaleza.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pinto Martins - Fortaleza International Airport Airports in Ceará Fortaleza