On 10 May 1923, a School of Naval Aviation was established near Galeão beach on
Governador Island. On 22 May 1941, with the creation of the Brazilian Air Force Ministry, the school became the Galeão Air Force Base; a terminal and hangars were built and the runway extended. Those buildings still exist and Galeão Air Force Base is still active. When Brazil declared war against the
Axis on 22 August 1942, the aerodrome began to be used intensely by the
Allies for military operations related to World War II. at Rio de Janeiro International Airport At the end of the war,
Santos Dumont Airport was unable to handle the increased tonnage of aircraft flying on international routes and number of passengers. For this reason, international flights were gradually moved to the site of the Air Force Base. The services were however precarious and a decision was made to build a brand new passenger terminal, opposite to the Air Force Base, across the runway. On 1 February 1952, the new passenger terminal was opened and remained in use with enlargements until 1977. This terminal is used presently by passenger flights operated by the Brazilian Air Force. The cargo terminal is also located in the area and all-cargo aircraft usually park at its adjoining apron. The whole complex is now informally known as the "old Galeão". Infraero was the administrator until 2013. As proof of the airport's prestige, the
Concorde made its maiden scheduled flight with
Air France on 21 January 1976, flying from
Paris–Charles de Gaulle to Galeão via
Dakar. Those twice-weekly flights were discontinued in 1982. Furthermore, the
007 – James Bond production
Moonraker (1979) shows the Concorde touching down at Galeão. On 6 June 1967, in response to the growth of air traffic in Brazil, the Brazilian government initiated studies concerning the renovation of airport infrastructure in the country. As part of the conclusions of these studies, because of their location, strategic importance, and security issues, new passenger facilities would be constructed in the
Galeão Air Force Base in Rio de Janeiro and the
São Paulo Air Force Base in
São Paulo. On 20 January 1977, when the airport was receiving most of Brazil's major international flights, this new terminal was opened and all scheduled passenger flights were transferred to the new building. This building is known today as Passenger Terminal 1. One of the features dating from this time is the sultry
PA system announcements made by Iris Lettieri, which were featured on
National Public Radio. In 1985, the airport lost the title of the country's major international airport to the newly-opened
São Paulo–Guarulhos International Airport. At that time, a new runway allowing intercontinental flights with no weight restrictions was opened in São Paulo and Brazilian and foreign airlines increasingly used São Paulo as a national and international hub. As a consequence, the number of transiting passengers dropped. Constant efforts were made by the government of the state of
Rio de Janeiro to reverse the trend. As a result, after stagnating for years embittered by the loss of domestic flights to Santos Dumont Airport and international flights to São Paulo–Guarulhos Airport, Galeão has – since late 2004 – gradually recovered its importance in the national and international spheres with addition of flights and airlines. During 1991, Passenger Terminal 1 underwent its first major renovation in preparation for the
United Nations Earth Summit held in 1992. Its annual capacity was increased to 7.5 million passengers a year. On 20 July 1999, Passenger Terminal 2 was opened. The airport has those two passenger terminals in elliptical format, each with twelve jetways and capable of handling 7.5 million passengers annually. On 31 August 2009, Infraero unveiled a 819 million (431 million; 302 million) investment plan to upgrade Galeão International Airport focusing on the preparations for the
2014 FIFA World Cup which was held in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro being one of the venue cities, and the
2016 Summer Olympics, which Rio de Janeiro would host. The investment was supposed to be distributed as follows: • Renovation of Passenger Terminal 1. Completed: 2012. • Completion and renovation of Passenger Terminal 2. Completed: June 2012. • Construction of further parking. Value 220.0 million. Completed: late 2013. Responding to critiques to the situation of its airports, on May 18, 2011, Infraero released a list evaluating some of its most important airports according to its saturation levels. According to the list, Galeão was considered to be in good situation, operating with less than 70% of its capacity. Like most South American airports operated by government-owned operators, Galeão had high operating costs per passenger. On 26 April 2011, it was confirmed that in order to speed-up much needed renovation and upgrade works, private companies would be granted a
concession to operate some Infraero airports among them, on a second phase, Galeão. The plan was confirmed on 31 May 2011, and it was added that Infraero would retain 49% of the shares of each privatized airport. On 22 November 2013, the Brazilian Government had a bidding process to determine the airport's private operator from 2014 until 2039. The Group Aeroporto Rio de Janeiro, also known as RIOgaleão, formed by
Grupo Odebrecht (60%) and Singaporean operator
Changi Airport Group (40%) paid 19 billion and won the competition. The contract was signed on 2 April 2014. The new concessionary has been using the brand name
RIOgaleão–Aeroporto Internacional Tom Jobim. RIOgaleão, has revised, modified and upgraded those plans to include the construction of a new pier with 26 new bridges, a new apron for 97 aircraft, and 2,640 car-parking spaces have been added in 2016–17, which would sum up to 2 billion reais. One day after the closure of the 2016 Summer Olympics, Galeão handled an all-time record of passengers on a single day. It is estimated that on 22 August 2016, 85,000 passengers transited at the airport facilities. On 10 February 2022, the concessionary requested the devolution of the facility. The request was approved by the
National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil on 25 May 2022. The new biding process took place on March 30, 2026. The winner was
AENA, becoming, thus the new concessionary of the facility. RioGaleão (formed by
Infraero with 49% of the shares, and
Changi Airport Group, and
Vinci with 51% of the shares, the latter having replaced the original Brazilian investor
Odebrecht) and AENA will jointly manage the facility until the re-concession process is completed. AENA holds 100% of the concession because
Infraero ceased to hold 49% of the shares. On 27 May 2022,
TAP Maintenance & Engineering closed the facility at Galeão which it had operated since 2006. This maintenance center was previously owned by
Varig. On 7 July 2022,
United Airlines was announced as the new owner of the facility. In April 2022, the airport was used for
Stock Car Pro Series automobile racing.
Cacá Bueno Circuit, named after
Cacá Bueno, Rio de Janeiro-born and 5 times
Stock Car Brasil champion, was built within the airport partially using runways 10/28 for this purpose. However, the circuit was not included in the 2023 Stock Car Pro Series calendar due to the increase of flights after the
COVID-19 pandemic. Galeão was the primary airport of Rio de Janeiro, being the much smaller
Santos Dumont Airport the secondary facility until 2019. In 2020 positions inverted and in 2022 Santos Dumont was accounting for approximately 63% of the total traffic of
Greater Rio de Janeiro, spread into three airports. In 2022 Santos Dumont reached 10,178,502 transported passengers whereas Galeão had only 5,895,257. In order to control and revert this abnormal trend, on August 10, 2023 the Civil Aviation National Council issued an order to restrict Santos Dumont services to airports located within 400 km maximum from Rio de Janeiro and without international services. The resolution came into force on January 1, 2024, and is considered to be provisory, until a balance is reached. Airlines started cancelling and/or moving services to Galeão in September 2023. Following resistance from the international aviation community, on November 8, 2023 the restrictions were reversed and replaced by an annual cap of 6.5 million passengers transiting at Santos Dumont Airport, starting in 2024. The facility covers a total of 1,788.2
hectares (4,419
acres), being the largest airport site in terms of area in Brazil. ==Airlines and destinations==