Brazil’s Institute for Applied Economic Research, Ipea, stated that a third airport might be ready for the tournament “if everything goes right”, but the shortage of air travel provisions would cause transport problems for fans.
“The situation is such that it's increasingly unlikely that these projects will be ready on time,” said Carlos Campos, one of the authors of the study, according to Reuters. Ipea criticised state-owned airport authority Infraero, which it said “has a low level of efficiency in the execution of investment programs”.
Even if all 13 airport upgrades were to be ready on time, 10 are expected to be operating over capacity by the time of the World Cup, Ipea added. Fourteen of Brazil's 20 largest airports are already operating at more than 80% of capacity.
Around US$900 million has been budgeted by Infraero to upgrade the country’s airports ahead of the competition, with the World Cup expected to attract up to one million visitors. In addition to the 13 airports being upgraded for the World Cup, a brand new airport in Natal, another World Cup host city, still has no firm date for completion.
