LatinNews Daily - 31 March 2026

*Brazil’s ministry of ports and airports has completed a public tender for the contract to operate Rio de Janeiro’s Antonio Carlos Jobim international airport – better known by its original name Galeão – with the concession being awarded to Spanish airport operator Aena. The airport was managed by RIOGaleão, a company jointly owned by Brazilian asset manager Vinci Compass, Singaporean airport operator Changi Airports International, and Brazilian state-owned airport administrator Infraero. With the acceptance yesterday of Aena’s bid of R$2.9bn (US$552m), the Spanish firm won the auction over the two other firms that placed bids – RIOGaleão and Switzerland’s Flughafen Zuerich, the operator of Zurich Airport. According to a government press release, the Galeão concession auction comes amid a period of restructuring for the airport after years of lower demand, following the large infrastructure investments made for the 2014 Fifa World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympics and the difficulties for the aviation industry brought about by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. However, the government highlights that air travel to and from Rio de Janeiro has been ticking up again in recent years. The two main airports in Rio, Galeão and Santos Dumont, received a total of 18.9m passengers in 2023, which increased to 23.5m in 2025.

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