Airlines Adding Extra Sections for FIFA World Cup..Brazil Can't Keep Up.
With less than 10 weeks until the start of the World Cup, work on crucial new airport terminals has fallen behind in most of the dozen Brazilian host cities, heightening the risk of overcrowding and confusion during the tournament.
A temporary canvas terminal will be used instead of a planned airport expansion to receive fans in Fortaleza, which will host six matches including Brazil's game against Mexico and a quarter-final. Officials are already preparing alternatives for other cities.
"Other airports have not said anything yet, but they will probably have to come up with contingencies," said Carlos Ozores, a principal at aviation consultancy ICF International who has consulted for Brazilian airlines and airport operators.
Concern over Brazil's airports is especially acute since they represent some of the tournament's most lasting investments. A host of other transportation projects have been scrapped or postponed, adding to criticism that the World Cup will leave few long-term benefits for ordinary Brazilians.
Quick fixes and last-minute deliveries are a recipe for chaos in the complex aviation industry, analysts say. Bungled openings of terminals from London to Denver took months to straighten out.
The stakes will be high in Brazil as more than 600,000 visitors arrive for the World Cup starting in June, one of the biggest sudden influxes the country has ever seen.
"People coming to Brazil are going to be shocked, especially Americans, by how bad the airports are," said Paul Irvine, who runs travel agency Dehouche in Rio de Janeiro.
"There won't be any catastrophic issues... but they will be chaotic and ugly as heck," he said.
Any air travel chaos could be especially embarrassing for President Dilma Rousseff, who made a bold political bet by privatizing a handful of key airports to ready them for the tournament, accelerating work that had languished under state control. The move broke with the ideology of her leftist Workers' Party.
One new terminal is set to open in weeks and the private operator promises another by May, although municipal authorities are downplaying that possibility.
At Guarulhos Airport outside Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city, the glistening facade of the new Terminal 3 hides an interior still missing several walls, ceilings and basic operating systems.
"Guarulhos is where we expect to get the most blowback," said one government official briefed on the airport's progress, who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue.
The automated baggage check and immigrations systems originally promised will not be ready for the World Cup. The new international terminal is set to open at a fraction of its eventual capacity, handling just one in four foreign flights - less than 10 percent of overall traffic at the airport.
"At Terminal 3 in Guarulhos, they have already shifted from more airlines to fewer for the World Cup, and one could imagine further announcements ahead," said Ozores. "There's clearly a correction going on, an adjustment of expectations."
By most accounts, construction at the privatised airports has moved at a relentless pace, with 8,000 workers on shifts around the clock at each site. Operators say they will deliver new terminals by the deadlines they promised.
