Pampulha Domestic Airport

Belo Horizonte/Pampulha–Carlos Drummond de Andrade Airport Aeroporto de Belo Horizonte/Pampulha–Carlos Drummond de Andrade
IATA: PLU ICAO: SBBH
Summary
Airport type	Public/Military
Operator	Infraero
Serves	Belo Horizonte
Elevation AMSL	789 m / 2,589 ft
Coordinates	19°51′07″S 043°57′02″W / 19.85194°S 43.95056°W / -19.85194; -43.95056Coordinates: 19°51′07″S 043°57′02″W / 19.85194°S 43.95056°W / -19.85194; -43.95056
Website	Infraero PLU
Map
PLU Location in Brazil
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 13/31 2,538 8,327 Asphalt
Statistics (2016)
Passengers 300,061 57.9% Aircraft Operations 41,640 18.0% Metric tonnes of cargo 14.2 300.8%
Statistics: Infraero Sources: Airport Website,ANAC

Passengers	300,061 57.9%
Aircraft Operations	41,640 18.0%
Metric tonnes of cargo	14.2 300.8%

Belo Horizonte/Pampulha–Carlos Drummond de Andrade Airport (IATA: PLU, ICAO: SBBH) is an airport serving Belo Horizonte, Brazil, located in the neighborhood of Pampulha. Since December 16, 2004 the airport is also named after the Minas Gerais-born poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902–1987).

The airport is operated by Infraero.

Pampulha Airport was opened in 1933 as a support facility for the passenger flights operated by the Brazilian Air Force between Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza. The first commercial operation started in 1936, when Panair do Brasil was granted a concession to fly between Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte.

In 1943 the runway was extended to 1,500m x 45m, in 1953 to 1,700m, and finally in 1961 to 2,505m.

Since 1973 the airport has been operated by Infraero.

With the great increase of traffic at Pampulha Airport, the facility became too small and unable to handle all operations. For this reason, the new Tancredo Neves International Airport was built in the adjoining municipality of Confins. The new facility was opened in 1984.

However, due to the long distance between Belo Horizonte and Confins, Pampulha remained the airport of choice for most airlines, eventually becoming overcrowded, while Confins was under-used. In order to revert this scenario, in March 2005 the government of the state of Minas Gerais with the support of agencies of the Federal government decided to restrict Pampulha to operations of aircraft with capacity of up to 50 passengers. In the months thereafter, most operations were forced to move to Confins and Pampulha gained a new vocation as a hub for regional flights and general aviation.