20 Million Passengers Flew Through São Paulo’s Guarulhos International Through June | Airline Travel News

South America’s largest hub, Guarulhos International Airport (GRU) in Sao Paulo, Brazil, received 19.4 million passengers during 2023’s first half, according to a statement released by GRU Airport on Thursday.

Fueling a recovery

Brazil has slowly but surely been recovering from the COVID-19 impact on the airline industry. Guarulhos International, the country’s largest hub, is close to bouncing back to pre-pandemic traffic levels, according to data from GRU Airport, the administrator, and the South American country’s Civil Aviation National Agency (ANAC).

During the first half of 2023, Guarulhos handled more than 19.4 million passengers; in June alone, the airport had 3.27 million travelers. Compared to the traffic data from 2019 available on ANAC’s website, Guarulhos has recovered 96.23% of its pre-pandemic numbers, closing in on a full recovery.

Recovering more destinations

Guarulhos International is looking to recover more connectivity during the second half of the year. In this semester, some routes suspended during the pandemic are expected to return, such as LATAM’s flights to Johannesburg (JNB) in South Africa and Los Angeles (LAX) in the United States (the latter as part of the airline’s Joint Venture with Delta Air Lines).

Nonetheless, Sao Paulo will also receive newcomers such as Arajet, which will begin flying from Santo Domingo and Egyptair from Cairo. Another novelty is the unprecedented connection to Cape Town, operated by South African Airways, which is scheduled to start on October 31. Currently, the airport connects São Paulo to 52 domestic destinations and 47 international destinations.

Every year, Guarulhos is used as a connecting airport by around 12 million people, which shows its growing importance in the connectivity of Brazil and South America with the rest of the world. João Pita, Commercial and Cargo Director of…

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