Quote:
Originally Posted by Golfingworld
Plus has anyone actually tried to get there from Europe apart from with Thomsonfly? TAP have a monopoly and that is about €1250. There are no direct flights to NE Brazil at all, everyone has to go to Rio or SP. European property grew due to low cost flights..how's that going to work in Brazil if everything is routed through the south of the country? No flights no people...simple.
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Well, the "new" airport in Natal might help change that. Now, I know that the airport has been hyped up a lot however if you look at the official info from Infraero:
Na Região Nordeste está em construção um novo aeroporto em Natal e o Aeroporto Internacional de João Pessoa passa por ampliação. Obras em outros Estados da Região foram concluídas. O terminal de passageiros e a pista do Aeroporto de Petrolina, em Pernambuco, foram ampliados. Recife ganhou um novo aeroporto, com capacidade para cinco milhões de passageiros por ano. Maceió também tem um novo aeroporto desde o final de 2005, com 22 mil metros quadrados, quase o triplo da antiga estação. O Aeroporto de Campina Grande, na Paraíba, foi ampliado.
Além disso, o Aeroporto de São Luís passou a ser internacional, após investimentos da Infraero para adequação da estrutura aos padrões de aeroporto internacional.
Basically what that says is that not only is the new airport in Natal being built, but Joao Pessoa is being improved/enlarged. Other work on airports in the region have been carried out. Petrolina in Pernambuco has been enlarged, Recife has a new airport with a capacity of 5 mil per annum, Maceió also has a new airport (built at the end of 2005) which is triple the size of the last one. The airport in Paraíba was also enlarged.
Sao Luis airport is now an international airport following investments on behalf of Infraero to upgrade the facilities.
Now, although Infraero states that they are in charge of building the new Natal airport, I've heard rumours that it is going to be privatised to speed up the construction. Infraero information states that they are building it (well, the Brazilian army is, under their supervision) and that it will be finished in 2009.
According to the local newspaper though,
14/07/2007 - Tribuna do Norte , the president of Infraero, brigadier José Carlos Pereira, met on the 13.07.2007 with the governor Wilma de Faria and the president of BNDES, (Brazilian development bank) Luciano Coutinho, to determine how they could speed up construction of the new airport in Natal, (Sao Gonçalo de Amarante). They discussed the possibility and agreed that privatising the construction would be the best course of action. Several companies were involved in the discussion, including AENA (state owned company which runs all Spanish airports).
It seems to me like a case of chicken and egg. Should we be asking how to get there now when the resorts people are talking about haven't been built yet or how will we get there when the resorts are actually built and the owners want to get there to visit them? According to official statements from the government and from the local newspaper (both of which are in Portuguese so are not propaganda for the europeans) the airport will be ready by 2009. Assuming you are referring to Elegance Grand Natal (as you mentioned the golf courses) both should be ready more or less at the same time. Until then, you have TAP or Thomsonfly and someone mentioned the option of flying from Holland? Unless someone else opens flights between now and then which is a distinct possibility considering the interest and investment going on in the region.
And I don't even like Elegance GN personally. I think it is an interesting project and potentially a good investment but not my cup of tea as I prefer smaller projects like Jacuma. (everyone has different tastes).