Vinci Airports has taken over the operation of Manaus International Airport in Brazil, under a 30-year concession contract awarded by the Brazilian civil aviation authority.
The airport operator intends to develop the cargo activity at Manaus by optimizing the airport operations and, as a result, economic development in the Amazon region.
Vinci Airports will also deploy its environmental action plan to reduce the airport’s CO2 emissions through the construction of a solar farm, and to improve its water and waste management. Furthermore, a forest carbon sink program will be implemented at the airport to sequester its residual CO2 emissions while helping to protect the Amazon rainforest and biodiversity.
Six other airports in the region – Porto Velho, Rio Branco, Boa Vista, Cruzeiro do Sul, Tabatinga and Tefé – will also join Vinci Airports’ portfolio in February 2022. In total, these seven airports welcomed seven million passengers in 2019. These new agreements will bring the total number of airports operated by Vinci to 53 worldwide – eight of them in Brazil.
Nicolas Notebaert, CEO of Vinci Concessions and president of Vinci Airports, commented, “Vinci Airports is proud to be the new operator of Manaus Airport and six other new airports in the northern block. In this region of Brazil, largely made up of forests and rivers, air transport is essential for the mobility of people and the supply chain. We will mobilize our expertise from an operational and environmental standpoint, with a view to sustainable development. We are renewing our partnership with Brazil to make this concession a new success, building on the very positive results we have obtained in Salvador de Bahia.”
