Belo Horizonte/Pampulha – Carlos Drummond de Andrade Airport
| Belo Horizonte/Pampulha–Carlos Drummond de Andrade Airport Aeroporto de Belo Horizonte/Pampulha–Carlos Drummond de Andrade |
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Carlos Drummond de Andrade Airport and Pampulha Lake
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| IATA: PLU – ICAO: SBBH | |||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Public/Military | ||||||||||
| Operator | Infraero | ||||||||||
| Serves | Belo Horizonte | ||||||||||
| Focus city for | Azul Brazilian Airlines | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 789 m / 2,589 ft | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | ||||||||||
| Website | Infraero PLU | ||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||
 PLU
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| Runways | |||||||||||
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| Statistics (2013) | |||||||||||
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Belo Horizonte/Pampulha–Carlos Drummond de Andrade Airport (IATA: PLU, ICAO: SBBH) is an airport serving Belo Horizonte, Brazil, located in the neighborhood of Pampulha. Since December 16, 2004 the airport is also named after the Minas Gerais-born poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902–1987).[4]
The airport is operated by Infraero.
Contents
History
Pampulha Airport was opened in 1933 as a support facility for the passenger flights operated by the Brazilian Air Force between Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza. The first commercial operation started in 1936, when Panair do Brasil was granted a concession to fly between Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte.[citation needed]
In 1943 the runway was extended to 1,500m x 45m, in 1953 to 1,700m, and finally in 1961 to 2,505m.
Since 1973 the airport has been operated by Infraero.[citation needed]
With the great increase of traffic at Pampulha Airport, the facility became too small and unable to handle all operations. For this reason, the new Tancredo Neves International Airport was built in the adjoining municipality of Confins. The new facility was opened in 1984.
However, due to the long distance between Belo Horizonte and Confins, Pampulha remained the airport of choice for most airlines, eventually becoming overcrowded, while Confins was under-used. In order to revert this scenario, in March 2005 the government of the state of Minas Gerais with the support of agencies of the Federal government decided to restrict Pampulha to operations of aircraft with capacity of up to 50 passengers.[5] In the months thereafter, most operations were forced to move to Confins and Pampulha gained a new vocation as a hub for regional flights and general aviation.
Airlines and destinations
Accidents and incidents
- 31 May 1954: Transportes Aéreos Nacional, a Douglas DC-3/C-47A-80-DL, registration PP-ANO, en route from Governador Valadares to Belo Horizonte-Pampulha, strayed off course and struck the Cipó mountain range in cloudy conditions. All 19 passengers and crew died.[6][7]
Access
The airport is located 8 km (5 mi) from downtown Belo Horizonte.
Future developments
On 31 August 2009, Infraero unveiled a BRL8.4 million (USD4.4 million; EUR3.1 million) investiment plan to upgrade Pampulha Airport focusing on the preparations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which will be held in Brazil, Belo Horizonte being one of the venue cities. The investment would be distributed as follows:[8]
- New control tower. Value 5.6 million. Estimated completion: originally November 2010; postponed to the end of 2012[9]
- Upgrade of general aviation hangars. Value 1.2 million. Estimated completion: July 2013
- Enlargement of the apron. Value 1.6 million. Estimated completion: July 2013
See also
References
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External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Belo Horizonte/Pampulha – Carlos Drummond de Andrade Airport. |
- Airport information for SBBH at World Aero Data. Data current as of October 2006.Source: DAFIF.
- Airport information for SBBH at Great Circle Mapper. Source: DAFIF (effective October 2006).
- Current weather for SBBH at NOAA/NWS
- Accident history for PLU at Aviation Safety Network
- Pampulha-Carlos Drummond de Andrade Airport Photo Archive at airliners.net
