The national airport authority of Brazil, Infraero is proposing a 29mn-real (US$15.8mn) project to build a second passenger terminal for Presidente Castro Pinto airport in Paraíba the state capital Joao Pessoa.
“We are currently conducting preliminary studies aimed at preparing the tender,” the spokesperson said, adding that a tender date and exact budget have yet to be finalized.
The airport is located in Bayeux, some 13.6km from downtown João Pessoa.
The current passenger terminal spans 9,464m2 and has capacity to handle 860,000 passengers per year, following improvement and remodeling work that started in 2004.
Paraíba state’s other airport, Presidente João Suassuna, is located in the city of Campina Grande, some 122km from João Pessoa.
Google expects revenue from its Brazilian operations to surge 80 per cent this year as the government pours huge amounts of investment into the sector, making the country one of the company’s most promising growth markets.
Giving Brazil’s poor more access to the internet and improving connection speeds is a priority of the country’s new president, Dilma Rousseff, who sees the web as the best way to accelerate social and economic development.
“Brazil is a beautiful opportunity for the digital world,” said the head of Google’s Brazilian subsidiary, Fábio Coelho, in an interview with the Financial Times. “Last year we grew 80 per cent in Brazil in terms of revenue and we expect to grow at the same pace this year.”
Latin America accounted for 2-3 per cent of Google’s $29.3bn revenue last year, with analysts estimating that Brazil brought in as much as $500m.
By Samantha Pearson in São Paulo (read more)
