MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil plans to build 800 regional airports linking cities with 100.000-population

“We have the funds”, said President Rousseff

Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, told reporters in Paris her government intends to build approximately 800 regional airports in Brazil. The project considers that each city with over 100.000 inhabitants should have an airport within a 60-kilometer range.

“It is a necessity, and it is also important to the country's growth,” Dilma told French businessmen after attending the seminar Challenges and Opportunities of a Strategic Partnership, in the French capital.

Dilma discussed the importance of privatizing major airports and increasing the qualification of the Brazilian Airport Infrastructure Company (Infraero) and stressed the need to expand inland air transport in a continent-sized country such as Brazil.

The president stressed the need to strengthen regional aviation in the country, “differentiating it from long-range aviation.”

In addition to airports at a maximum distance of 60 kilometres from municipalities with up to 100.000 inhabitants, Dilma said airports must be built at the country's main tourist spots, and said the government has sufficient funds to do so.

“We have the funds for it - and some of them originate from the very concession fees we charge from major airports,” she said.

At the meeting with the French businessmen, the Brazilian president also discussed the High-Speed Rail, which will be built to connect Campinas and Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro. Last week, the Federal Court of Auditors approved the tender, with qualifications.

Rousseff said that throughout 2013, all pending transport sector tenders will be floated. After her trip to Paris, Dilma left for Moscow, where she should meet with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and prime minister, Dmitri Medvedev. She is scheduled to return from Russia on Saturday, December 14.