Rio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport guide

Rio Galeão sits on Governador Island in Guanabara Bay, about 19 kilometres north of downtown Rio de Janeiro. It opened on 1 February 1952 as Galeão Airport, named for Praia do Galeão, the beach where the galleon Padre Eterno was built in 1663. In 1999 the airport added a tribute to composer Antônio Carlos Jobim, who referenced it in his song 'Samba do Avião'; it is still widely known simply as Galeão.

State company Infraero ran the airport until 2014, when a federal concession handed operations to the RIOgaleão consortium, built around Odebrecht and Changi Airports, with Infraero keeping a 49 percent stake. Changi's share later passed mostly to Vinci Compass, a Brazilian asset manager unrelated to France's Vinci Airports. That concession changed hands again in March 2026, when Aena won a re-auction running to 2039 and began jointly managing the airport alongside RIOgaleão. Terminal 1, the airport's original building, closed to scheduled passenger check-in in November 2016; all airline services now run through Terminal 2, whose Píer Sul extension added 26 boarding bridges the same year. Of the airport's two runways, the 4,000-metre 10/28 is the longest commercial runway in Brazil.

Gol Linhas Aéreas operates Galeão as a hub, and LATAM Brasil treats it as a focus city, alongside Azul on the domestic side. American Airlines, Delta, United, British Airways, Air France and TAP Air Portugal fly the main long-haul international routes. Passenger numbers have climbed sharply since the pandemic low, reaching roughly 17.9 million in 2025.