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GRU Airport in the Sertão: What Changes Hands Auter

A successful regional airport concession begins when operations are in order. Construction is completed later.

Mariana Soares · Founder and CEO of Auter

· 6 min read

GRU Airport in the Sertão: What Changes Hands Auter

On Monday (10), at 9:30 a.m., Paulo Afonso Airport in Bahia changed operators. The runway was the same as the day before, and so was the terminal. What changed was who became accountable for all of it to the competent authority from that moment onward.

Paulo Afonso is the first in a series. Serra Talhada, in the Sertão do Pajeú region, came under GRU Airport's management on Wednesday (11), and Lençóis, in Chapada Diamantina, follows on November 30. In total, the Guarulhos concessionaire is adding 12 regional airports across eight states, awarded under the AmpliAR program, with approximately R$ 630 million planned for runways, aprons, and terminals.

That was the headline figure. There is another figure that no one published, probably because no one has it: how many landings these airports recorded over the past year, and how many resulted in charges.

How did a quarter of airport charge revenue go uncollected?

At one regional airport where Auter began working, operations were running normally. Aircraft landed, parked on the apron, and departed. What was missing was accurate recording of those landings and parking periods. The effect showed up in cash flow: the airport was failing to collect approximately a quarter of its airport charge revenue.

A loss of that size rarely comes from one major error. It comes from small, recurring gaps within lean teams, where the same person handles several responsibilities during a shift. A landing is recorded with the wrong time, a parking period is never closed out, or an aircraft departs before its movement is entered. Each omission seems insignificant; together, they amount to a quarter of revenue.

This is not a marginal loss. According to ACI World, aeronautical charges account for up to 54% of airport revenue. When recording fails, it undermines a source that can represent more than half of an airport's income.

For a concession, this has another name: the baseline used to project the asset's revenue. An operator taking over an airport with these records also inherits an inaccurate baseline.

What happens when traffic grows faster than operational oversight?

The second problem emerges precisely when things go well. At another airport, traffic increased significantly. Operations absorbed the volume, but management lost visibility into its own organization and the ability to plan. Simple questions no longer had quick answers: who is assigned where, which inspection has been completed, and which outstanding issue remains open.

This is exactly what AmpliAR promises these airports: investment, new routes, and more flights. Barreirinhas, the gateway to Lençóis Maranhenses; São Raimundo Nonato, in Serra da Capivara; and Aracati, near Canoa Quebrada, are destinations with the potential to grow quickly. Unless the operational foundations are in place beforehand, that growth reaches an airport that cannot clearly see its own operations.

Who is accountable for what was already there?

The new operator assumes regulatory responsibility from the first hour. Aerodrome operating requirements under regulation No. 153 apply to every civil aerodrome operator in Brazil. At the first regulatory inspection, the operator named in the contract is accountable, including for the conditions inherited at handover.

That is why the keys should come with the airport's operational history: movement area inspections from the previous year, unresolved occurrences, pavement maintenance history, aviation security credentials and their expiration dates, and recorded aircraft movements. Outside major hubs, these records are rarely held in one place. Even where billing is already managed through software, inspections, security controls, ground times, and passenger flows often remain on paper, in disconnected spreadsheets, or in the knowledge of people who have worked there for years.

The transition is short. At the airports in Bahia, GRU Airport will have 90 days to take full operational control after the competent authority approves the infrastructure reports. Since the 9th, the concessionaire's teams have been observing daily operations at the Paulo Afonso and Lençóis terminals. Ninety days is enough to take over operations, but not to reconstruct years of records.

How can twelve different airports be managed consistently?

The network stretches from Aracati, in Ceará, to Vilhena, in Rondônia. The contract itself illustrates the differences between the assets: Paulo Afonso has R$ 106.2 million allocated, while Araripina has R$ 19.6 million. That is a difference of more than fivefold within the same contract amendment. Each airport comes from a previous administration, with its own way of recording operations, or of not recording them.

The economies of scale that justify the model, across procedures, teams, procurement, and service standards, depend on one condition: measuring every airport consistently. An executive team responsible for both Guarulhos and Garanhuns needs to compare them using the same criteria to decide where to bring construction forward and where risks lie. Without that consistency, portfolio decisions are made about assets that have not been measured on the same basis.

The challenge is not unique to one concessionaire. It will arise again at the Brasília airport group auction on December 17. Inframerica, the current concessionaire of the capital's airport, is competing with other groups for a contract that adds ten regional airports to the terminal. Whoever wins will receive those ten airports with whatever historical records they have. The same applies to any contract that incorporates airports from the program.

Why must operational foundations come before construction?

The R$ 630 million will transform runways and terminals over the coming years. What determines whether these airports can sustain themselves, however, happens first: recording every landing and parking period, closing every occurrence, and knowing who is where. This is ongoing work, and revenue, compliance, and the ability to grow depend on it.

In Auter's experience, the sequence is always the same. First, decide what to record, according to which criteria, and at what point. Then ensure that complete data is captured as operations take place, with a record of who entered, changed, or canceled each entry. At SP Catarina International Executive Airport, this means recording 1,500 to 2,000 aircraft movements and more than 2,500 ground services per month to the same standard. At an airport in the Sertão with only a few flights per week, the scale is different, but the requirement is the same.

A successful regional airport concession begins when operations are in order. Construction is completed later.

Auter develops an airport operations management platform designed for regional airports and networks of airports with different operating profiles, capturing each asset's operational history digitally from the first record onward.

Sources and references

Frequently asked questions

#### What should accompany an airport operational handover?

The handover should include movement area inspection records, unresolved occurrences, pavement maintenance history, aviation security credentials and their expiration dates, and recorded aircraft movements. These records help the incoming operator understand inherited conditions and manage its responsibilities.

#### Why do incomplete operational records affect airport revenue?

Missing or inaccurate landing and parking records can prevent the airport from billing the applicable charges. They also distort the revenue baseline used to assess the asset and plan the concession.

#### Is 90 days enough to prepare an airport for a new operator?

Ninety days can be enough to take over operations, but not to reconstruct years of missing records. An organized operational history is therefore essential before the transition begins.

#### Why should an airport network use consistent recording criteria?

Consistent criteria allow management to compare airports, identify risks, prioritize investment, and coordinate resources. Different traffic volumes do not remove the need for complete, traceable operational records.

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