Viracopos/Campinas International Airport Aeroporto Internacional de Viracopos/Campinas
IATA: VCP – ICAO: SBKP
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		Infraero
Serves		Campinas, São Paulo
Location		Campinas, Brazil
Elevation AMSL		2170 ft / 661 m
Coordinates		23°00′27″S 47°08′04″W / 23.0075°S 47.13444°W / -23.0075; -47.13444
Website		Infraero VCP
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	ft	m
15/33	10,630	3,240	Asphalt
Statistics (2009)
Passengers			3,364,404
Aircraft Operations			55,261
Metric tonnes of cargo			192,307
Statistics: Infraero Sources: Airport Website

Viracopos/Campinas International Airport (IATA: VCP, ICAO: SBKP) is an international airport in Campinas, state of São Paulo, Brazil. The airport is located 99 km (62 miles) from the capital city of São Paulo and 20 km (12 miles) from Campinas, adjacent to the Bandeirantes-Anhanguera highway complex, which connects the capital city to the interior of São Paulo state

History

Viracopos began in the 1940s as a simple landing field for the city of Campinas. In the 1960s it was improved with a long strip and began to operate with regular commercial airlines, such as Varig, VASP and Real. In the 1970s it became the international airport for São Paulo, since the runway of Congonhas Airport was too short for the big jet planes used in international passenger traffic. This position was lost to Guarulhos International Airport in 1985 and Viracopos entered into a decade of stagnation, with all international and most domestic flights transferred to Guarulhos and Congonhas. Since 1995, however, in recognition of the strategic importance of Viracopos for the economy, the state company for airports administration Infraero has been investing steadily to implement the first phase of the new airport's master plan, making major improvements to the cargo and passenger terminals. The first phase was completed in the first half of 2004, when the airport received new departure and arrival lounges, public areas and commercial concessions. The second phase of the passenger terminal expansion project was completed in 2005 and built a new control tower, expanded storage and processing facilities for the cargo terminal, and revamped entirely the passenger terminal. A third phase of expansion, which will build a second landing strip, is being planned and awaiting environmental impact reports and money for building private land around the airport. A total area of 12.36 km2, with 3,172 urban and 88 lots will be expropriated by the government for this purpose.

Features

Besides being a busy passenger terminal and now the main hub of Azul Brazilian Airlines, it is the 2nd busiest cargo airport in Brazil. One of its main attractions is it rarely closes due to bad weather conditions (an average of only 5 days per year). It was opened in 1960, as previously São Paulo lacked an airport capable of receiving (then) new long-range jet aircraft such as the Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC-8.

Before the completion of São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport in 1985, Viracopos was in theory the main international gateway to São Paulo. In practice, however, the airfield's distance from the city made it very inconvenient for passengers and airlines. As a result, international passenger service directly to Viracopos was limited, in spite of São Paulo being Brazil's largest and economically most important city; most international passengers to São Paulo simply opted to fly instead to Rio de Janeiro-Galeão International Airport and then connect to the smaller Congonhas Airport, which lies in the heart of São Paulo city, very close to downtown and to the major business districts.

At that time, Viracopos even appeared on the Guinness Book of Records as the furthest airport from the city it allegedly served, a dubious title that now probably rests with Stockholm-Västerås Airport, a secondary airport serving (at least nominally) Stockholm, Sweden, located about 110 km (68 miles) from that city.

The Campinas region, like most of the interior of São Paulo state, is one of the most prosperous in Brazil, with an impressive economic output. Its local domestic passenger traffic, combined with the intense domestic and international cargo traffic that also serves São Paulo, is still large enough to make Viracopos a relatively busy airport. The number of offered flights has increased dramatically since Azul Brazilian Airlines made Viracopos its main hub, offering free bus transportation for passengers to and from several points in the city of São Paulo. However, there are no other scheduled international passenger flights operating at Viracopos until July 1 2010, when TAP Portugal will start an international scheduled flight to Lisbon.

Viracopos IATA airport code is VCP and Campinas IATA city code is CPQ. Sometimes both codes are used as one although there is a distinction between them in airline reservation systems: VCP, together with Congonhas (CGH) and Guarulhos (GRU), is part of the multiple airport system set around the city of São Paulo (code SAO). CPQ is the specific city code of Campinas. An airline that files services with the code VCP has flights displayed when passengers or travel agents request service from São Paulo, whereas flights filed with the code CPQ are displayed as service from Campinas, not São Paulo. A similar example is New York City (NYC), in which the airport codes LGA (LaGuardia Airport), JFK (John F. Kennedy International Airport), and EWR (Newark Liberty International Airport) are used for the same city, although the latter is located in a different city and state.

Facilities

Facilities at the airport include:

• 150–180 flights per day
• 2,500 passengers/day
• 40 cargo airlines
• 60,000 square meters ((646,000 square feet) of cargo terminals
• 1,700 square meters (18,300 square feet) for animal cargo
• 1,480 cubic meters (52,200 square feet) of refrigerated space
• 65 m (213 ft)-high air traffic control tower

As a major import/export hub, Viracopos enjoys 'express lanes' for courier traffic which are exceptionally quick and unbureaucratic for Brazilian standards.

Airlines and destinations

a.^ Airline operating regular charter flights.

Cargo airlines (scheduled)

• ABSA Cargo Airline
• Atlas Air
• Cargolux
• Cielos Airlines
• Centurion Air Cargo
• FedEx Express
• LAN Cargo
• Lufthansa Cargo
• Martinair Cargo
• Polar Air Cargo
• UPS Airlines
• Varig Log

Accidents and incidents

• 23 November 1961: Aerolíneas Argentinas flight 322, a Comet 4 DH-106 turbojet, crashed shortly after take-off, killing all 12 crew and 40 passengers on board. The accident was attributed to pilot error.

Future developments

On 31 August 2009, Infraero unveiled a BRL2,814 million (USD1,482.6 million; EUR1,038.8 million) investiment plan to up-grade Viracopos International Airport focusing on the preparations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup which will be held in Brazil, São Paulo (99 km away) being one of the venue cities. The investment also intends to provide infra-structure to the airport, alliviating the air-traffic presently concentrated at São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport. The investiment will be distributed as follows:

• Construction of the second runway. Value 314.0. Completion: April 2013
• Construction of phase 1 of a new passenger terminal. Value 2,500.0. Completion: May 2015

The content above was published at Airports-Worldwide.com in 2010.
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