World Cup Brazil 2014

The Brazilian airports are not ready for the World Cup 2014 and the Olympic Games 2016, says Giovanni Bisignani, director of Iata (International Air Transport Association); in an interview, when asked whether the current aerial network could cope with the expected influx of visitors, the director said: “No, today we would have serious troubles”.

Bisignani also declared that, if the Brazilian Government decides to privatize existing airports or contract the building of new ones, laws should be passed to guarantee that all airports are ready and fully working in 2014: “the airports can’t be turned into money printing machines; there is no point in imposing fines to contractors, if visitors have already been frustrated”.

In regards to this same matter, Bisignani said that Brazil should seek to avoid the problem in South Africa, where, to pay the dividends to the airport operators, the airfare taxes will experiment a raise of 133%.

In response to Iata, the Minister of Defense (which controls all air traffic in Brazil), Nelson Jobim, declared that “we indeed have problems in the airports, but we are working to have them ready by 2014″.

The Minister said that there is an over estimation of the increase in the number of visitors during the World Cup. According to the Minister, during the months of the Cup, the circulation of passengers will increase by a figure of 2,7 million, which represents only 10% more than the normal traffic.

What the Minister doesn’t seem to remember is that Brazilian passenger have no choice but to use – and continue using -  these airports (photo shows a day of chaos in Rio de Janeiro airport). Foreign visitors may or may not come back – and they can tell the World about the problems of Brazilian airports.