São Paulo/Guarulhos - Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (IATA: GRU, ICAO: SBGR), nicknamed as Cumbica International Airport (after the former military airport in the same place), is a major Brazilian airport, the country's busiest by passenger traffic, located in the district of Cumbica, in the city of Guarulhos in metropolitan São Paulo. The airport is located 25 km (15 mi) from Downtown São Paulo. It began operations in 1985, supplanting São Paulo-Congonhas Airport as the city's primary airport.
A hub in South America, Guarulhos is Brazil's busiest airport by both passenger traffic and aircraft movements, handling 21,607,303 passengers (around one-sixth of all passengers passing through Brazilian airports.) and 209,638 aircraft movements in 2009. By cargo traffic, it is the second busiest airport in Latin America only exceeded by El Dorado International Airport of Bogotá, also the airport is the 36th busiest airport in the world. However, this airport was put in the world's third place in number of delayed flights by Forbes magazine in January, 2008.
Comprising 3,425 acres (14 km²), of which 5 km² is urbanized area, the airport's infrastructure has its own highway system: Rodovia Helio Smidt from the airport is connected to Rodovia Presidente Dutra and Rodovia Ayrton Senna.
All passenger traffic is divided between two terminals (TPS1 and TPS2). With 260 check-in counters, the airport is operational 24 hours a day. 39 national and international airlines fly from São Paulo-Guarulhos to 28 different countries, as well as more than 100 cities in Brazil and the world. Air China is the newest airline to start operations at the airport in December 2009, with flights to China.
Airport plans call for the construction of two additional terminals (TPS3 and TPS4) and a third runway, bringing the airport to full capacity for passenger and cargo operations. On 28 November 2001, a federal law changed the airport name to honor the ex-governor of São Paulo state, André Franco Montoro, deceased in 1999, although the official name is hardly ever used by locals, who normally refer to it as Guarulhos Airport or, even more commonly, just Cumbica, after the Guarulhos neighbourhood and name of the Brazilian Air Force base that exists at the site in which the airport was built. The Tropic of Capricorn passes directly through the southern tip of the airport.
The airport can service up to 20.5 million passengers a year.
Guarulhos currently operates with slot restrictions of a maximum of 45 operations/hour, being one of the two airports in Brazil with such restrictions.