Corumbá International Airport
Encyclopedia
Corumbá International Airport is the airport serving Corumbá
Corumbá
Corumbá is a municipality in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, 425 km northwest of Campo Grande, the state's capital. It has a population of approximately 96,000 inhabitants, and its economy is based mainly on agriculture, animal husbandry, mineral extraction, and tourism, being the...

, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

.

It is operated by Infraero
Infraero
Empresa Brasileira de Infraestrutura Aeroportuária, Infraero in short, is a Brazilian government corporation created in 1972 and responsible for operating the main Brazilian commercial airports. In 2009, Infraero's airports carried 128,135,616 passengers and 1,114,754 tons of cargo and operated...

.

History

Corumbá International Airport the second most important airport of Mato Grosso do Sul, just behind Campo Grande International Airport
Campo Grande International Airport
Campo Grande International Airport , sometimes also informally referred to as Antônio João Airport, after the neighborhood where it is located, is the airport serving Campo Grande, Brazil.it is operated by Infraero....

. Built on a site of 290 ha
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...

, it has capacity for medium size planes as a Boeing 737
Boeing 737
The Boeing 737 is a short- to medium-range, twin-engine narrow-body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has developed into a family of nine passenger models with a capacity of 85 to 215 passengers...

 and Fokker 100.

The airport was one of the first to be built outside Brazilian main centers. On September 8, 1933 Syndicato Condor established services between Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Corumbá and Cuiabá with wheeled tri-engine Junkers 52. This service was a major break-through because previously an overland journey to Mato Grosso took several days. In 1936 Condor made an interline agreement with Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano – LAB
Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano
Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano S.A. was an airline serving as flag carrier of Bolivia. It operated domestic and international flights, aiming at passenger as well as cargo transport. LAB was active for more than 80 years, having been based in Cochabamba most of the time, with Cochabamba Airport being an...

 and established an international connection to the main cities of Bolivia, via Puerto Suárez and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, using Corumbá as connecting point. The aircraft of Condor and LAB met in Corumbá during the overnight stop and exchanged passengers. Furthermore, the services between Corumbá and Cuiabá were operated with single-engine flying boat
Flying boat
A flying boat is a fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a float plane as it uses a purpose-designed fuselage which can float, granting the aircraft buoyancy. Flying boats may be stabilized by under-wing floats or by wing-like projections from the fuselage...

 Junkers. The connection between São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...

 and Corumbá
Corumbá
Corumbá is a municipality in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, 425 km northwest of Campo Grande, the state's capital. It has a population of approximately 96,000 inhabitants, and its economy is based mainly on agriculture, animal husbandry, mineral extraction, and tourism, being the...

 was completed in 6 to 7 hours, and on the next day the hydroplane would make the Corumbá/Cuiabá route, returning on the following day. This wait plus the connecting services with LAB forced the tri-engine Junkers 52 to wait for more than two days in Corumbá to return to São Paulo. For this reason, in 1937 the federal government built by the air-strip a hangar with a width of 35 meters to shelter the repair work of the Junkers that had nearly 30 meters of wingspan
Wingspan
The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...

. The hangar built with concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...

 and wood planks had small workshop
Workshop
A workshop is a room or building which provides both the area and tools that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods...

s and a passenger lobby.

On September 21, 1960 the present terminal was opened and in 1999 the whole airport complex was expanded: the passenger terminal was enlarged from 1,600m² to 2,400m², and the runway from 1,660x30m to 2,000x45m. In 2007 it received some repairs and further expansion.

Accidents and incidents

  • 20 August 1953: Companhia Itaú de Transportes Aéreos
    Companhia Itaú de Transportes Aéreos
    Companhia Itaú de Transportes Aéreos was a Brazilian airline founded in 1947. In 1955 it was sold to Transportes Aéreos Nacional, which incorporated the airline the following year.-History:...

    , a Curtiss C-46A-60-CK Commando registration PP-ITD crashed and caught fire during an emergency landing at Corumbá. Three crew members died and one survived.

External links

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