Brasília International Airport
Facts on BSB
Before Brasília existed, workers built the temporary Vera Cruz Airport in 1955 to fly in construction crews: a dirt runway and a passenger terminal that was little more than a cob-walled shack roofed with buriti-palm leaves.
Source: Wikipedia
The airport's full name honours Juscelino Kubitschek, a physician-turned-politician who served as Brazil's 21st president from 1956 to 1961 on the campaign slogan '50 years of progress in 5,' and is best remembered for building Brasília itself, inaugurated as the new capital on 21 April 1960.
Source: Wikipedia
Kubitschek first landed on Brasília's future site in 1956, while it was still just a plan; the airport that grew up beside the new capital was formally renamed Brasília–Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek International Airport on 20 April 1999.
Source: Wikipedia
Architect Oscar Niemeyer, who designed nearly all of Brasília's landmark buildings, proposed a circular terminal for the airport in 1965 but lost the commission after the 1964 coup; the design that was built instead, by Air Force Ministry architect Tércio Fontana Pacheco, opened in 1971.
Source: Wikipedia
The airport site covers roughly 2,900 hectares (7,165 acres) and shares grounds with the Brasília Air Force Base, which was commissioned in 1957, the same year the airport's first permanent terminal opened.
Source: Wikipedia
In February 2012, Brazil's government granted a 25-year concession to run the airport to Inframérica, a consortium split evenly between Brazilian firm Engevix and Argentina's Corporación América, ending the state operator Infraero's direct control.
Source: Wikipedia
By April 2014, the passenger terminal, built to handle 9 million people a year, was actually processing around 14 million annually, prompting an expansion that added new jetways and a South Concourse for domestic flights.
Source: Wikipedia
Ahead of Brazil hosting the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, Infraero committed 514.8 million reais (about US$306 million) to renovate Brasília's airport, including apron and taxiway work finished in 2013 and a terminal expansion completed in 2015.
Source: Wikipedia