SÃO PAULO, March 30 (Reuters) – The Spanish group Aena won the auction for Galeão international airport, in Rio de Janeiro, this Monday, with a bid of R$2.9 billion, around 211% above the minimum offer of R$932.8 million defined in the notice.
With the auction, the state-owned Infraero no longer has 49% of the terminal, which was privatized for the first time in 2013, during Dilma Rousseff’s government, when the winning group offered R$19 billion for the concession.
The current administrator of the airport, with a 51% stake, is RIOgaleão – formed by Changi Airport, from Singapore, and the French company Vinci. The group participated in the auction, but ended up losing the dispute.
The auction also involved Zurich Airport, which was in an intense competition in open outcry bidding with Aena, with bids that started at R$1.5 billion.
Galeão is 20 kilometers from the center of Rio de Janeiro and is the largest airport in the state and the second largest international terminal in Brazil.
The winning group will have to pay the Union an annual variable contribution corresponding to 20% of the concession’s gross revenue until 2039. In 2024, RIOgaleão’s revenue totaled R$1.14 billion, an increase of 37.4% over that obtained a year earlier, according to the company’s report.
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Aena already manages Congonhas airport, in the city of São Paulo, after winning an auction in 2022, when the terminal was included in a package with 10 other airports in the country for which the Spanish company offered R$2.45 billion.
With the victory, Aena now controls the second and third busiest airports in Brazil, according to data released by the company. The ranking is led by Guarulhos international airport (SP).
Galeão ended 2025 with a record movement of almost 18 million passengers (17.8 million), which represents an increase of 22.8% compared to 2024, when approximately 14.5 million travelers passed through the terminal, according to information from the city hall and the current concessionaire.
Despite the increase in Galeão’s flow, the terminal still has a large amount of idle capacity, since the airport has a capacity for more than 37 million passengers per year.
