Brigadeiro Eduardo Gomes-Manaus International Airport Aeroporto Internacional Brigadeiro Eduardo Gomes-Manaus
IATA: MAO – ICAO: SBEG
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		Infraero
Serves		Manaus
Elevation AMSL		80 m / 264 ft
Coordinates		03°02′19″S 60°02′59″W / 3.03861°S 60.04972°W / -3.03861; -60.04972
Website		Infraero MAO
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	m	ft
10/28	2,700	8,858	Asphalt
Statistics (2009)
Passengers			2,300,022
Aircraft Operations			45,852
Metric tonnes of cargo			134,418
Statistics: Infraero Sources: Airport Website

Brigadeiro Eduardo Gomes International Airport (IATA: MAO, ICAO: SBEG), is the main airport serving Manaus, Brazil. It is named after the Brazilian politician and military figure Air Marshall Eduardo Gomes (1896–1981).

In 2009, the airport was ranked 14th in terms of transported passengers, 19th in terms of aircraft operations, and 3rd in terms of cargo handled in Brazil, placing it amongst the busiest airports in the country. It is operated by Infraero.

History

Eduardo Gomes International Airport replaced Manaus' first airport Ponta Pelada Airport, from where all public traffic moved out in 1976. Today Ponta Pelada is the Manaus Air Force Base handling exclusively military operations.

Construction began in 1972 and the airport was officially inaugurated on March 31, 1976, becoming the most modern airport in Brazil at that time and the first one in Brazil to operate with jetways. It was then known as The Supersonic Airport, after receiving a non-scheduled Concorde flight. The first aircraft to land at the airport was a military de Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo. The first scheduled flight operated by a Brazilian regular airline was made by a Cruzeiro do Sul Boeing 737-200 and the first international scheduled flight was operated by an Air France Boeing 747-100, flying from Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Cayenne-Rochambeau and continuing to Lima.

The airport has two passenger terminal buildings. Terminal 1 receives domestic and international flights and Terminal 2, also known as "Eduardinho" (in Portuguese: the small Eduardo), opened on March 12, 1985, receives regional flights and general aviation. As for cargo terminals, the airport has three, opened in 1976, 1980 and 2004. They have a total area of 49,000 m² and can process up to 12,000 t/month of cargo. Terminals I and II handle good for export and terminal III for import.

In the vicinity of the airport is located Cindacta IV, the Brazilian Integrated Air Traffic Control and Air Defense Center section 4.

Terminals, airlines and destinations

Passenger

Terminal 1

Cargo (scheduled)

Accidents and incidents

• 21 April 1983: three Libyan Air Force Il-76TDs landed at Manaus airport after one of the Il-76s developed some technical problems while crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The aircraft were then searched by the Brazilian authorities: instead of medical supplies - as quoted in the transport documentation - the crate of the first of 17 Aero L-39s Albatross light training and attack aircraft bound for Nicaragua together with arms and parachutes, to support the country's war against US-backed Contras were found. The cargo was impounded, while the transports were permitted to return to Libya.
• 21 March 1989: Transbrasil flight 801, a cargo Boeing 707-349C registration PT-TCS, flying from Eduardo Gomes International Airport to São Paulo-Guarulhos, crashed at the district of Vila Barros in Guarulhos, shortly before touch-down at runway 09R. That day, at 12:00 hours the runway was going to be closed for maintenance and the crew decided to speed up procedures to touch-down before closure (it was already 11:54). In a hurry, one of the crew members by mistake activated the air-dynamic brakes and the aircraft lost speed and aerodynamic support. As a consequence the aircraft crashed at approximatelly 2 km from the airport. The three crew members and 22 persons on the ground died. There were more than 100 injured on the ground.
• 14 May 2004: Rico Linhas Aéreas flight 4815 operated by the Embraer EMB 120ER Brasília registration PT-WRO, en route from São Paulo de Olivença and Tefé to Eduardo Gomes International Airport crashed in the forest at about 18 nm from Manaus. All 33 passengers and crew died.
• 29 September 2006: Gol Airlines flight 1907, a Boeing 737-8EH registration PR-GTD en route from Eduardo Gomes International Airport to Rio de Janeiro - Galeão via Brasília, collided with a business jet Embraer Legacy on its first leg, fell, disintegrated in midair, and crashed into the Amazon forest in the north of the State of Mato Grosso, killing all of the 154 passengers and crew on board of the Gol aircraft.
• 26 March 2009: Arrow Cargo, a cargo McDonnell Douglas DC-10, flying from Manaus to Bogotá lost parts of an engine whilst flying over Manaus. The engine parts fell into the town of Manaus damaging 12 houses, the aircraft managed to land safely at Bogotá. No-one was injured or killed in this incident.

Access

The airport is located 14 km north of Manaus downtown.

Future developments

On 31 August 2009, Infraero unveiled a BRL793.5 million (USD316.1 million; EUR292.2 million) investiment plan to up-grade Eduardo Gomes International Airport focusing on the preparations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup which will be held in Brazil, Manaus being one of the venue cities. The investiment will invested as follows: .

• Enlargement of apron and existing runway. Construction of second runway. Value BRL600.0. Completion: July 2013
• Enlargement and renovation of the passenger terminal. Value BRL193.5. Completion: December 2013

The content above was published at Airports-Worldwide.com in 2010.
We don't guarantee the information is fresh and accurate. The data may be wrong or outdated.
For more up-to-date information please refer to other sources.