The Briefing
- Azul Conecta will launch the first scheduled commercial flights from São Paulo's Campo de Marte airport on December 27, 2026 — ending a 90-plus-year absence of passenger airline service at the historic Zona Norte airfield.
- A nine-seat Cessna 208B Grand Caravan turboprop will connect Campo de Marte to Angra dos Reis and Jacarepaguá daily through January 3, with Carnival-period frequencies returning February 6–10, 2027, alongside a new Belo Horizonte–Angra dos Reis link.
- The launch cements Campo de Marte as São Paulo's fourth commercial airport — and the only one in the city's northern zone — giving Zona Norte residents a direct departure point for the first time in living memory.
São Paulo's oldest airport is about to board its first revenue passengers in more than nine decades. Beginning December 27, 2026, Azul Conecta will operate a turboprop from the historic Campo de Marte airfield to the coastal resort of Angra dos Reis, launching the century-old terminal's first scheduled airline departures since Brazilian commercial aviation was still learning to walk.
A 97-Year-Old Airfield Gets Its Boarding Pass Back
Opened on July 26, 1929, Campo de Marte was São Paulo's first airport and remains one of the oldest operating aerodromes in South America. The Santana-district terminal entered commercial aviation legend in November 1933, when Viação Aérea São Paulo — VASP — staged its inaugural flight ceremony there, dispatching the first routes that would eventually grow into one of Brazil's major carriers of the 20th century. Congonhas opened in the mid-1930s to absorb São Paulo's expanding passenger traffic, and commercial operations at Campo de Marte quietly vanished from the schedule books. The airfield evolved instead into Brazil's busiest helicopter hub — a vast complex of executive aviation, police air units, and rotorcraft traffic that left no room in the spotlight for ticketed airline passengers.
The structural change that made this revival possible traces to Brazil's seventh federal airport concession round. XP Asset Management won a 30-year concession over Campo de Marte and Jacarepaguá at a B3 auction in August 2022, creating PAX Aeroportos as its dedicated operating entity. PAX formally assumed control of the São Paulo terminal on August 15, 2023, and has since invested approximately R$120 million in modernization — infrastructure improvements whose major first phase was inaugurated by Brazil's Ministry of Ports and Airports in March 2026.
What the Route Actually Looks Like
With ticket sales opening October 22, Azul Conecta built its schedule around two proven high-demand windows. From December 27 through January 3, 2027, the carrier will fly daily out of Campo de Marte at 9:00 a.m., touching down in Angra dos Reis at 10:25 a.m. before the aircraft continues on to Jacarepaguá. The return push-off from Angra comes at 2:05 p.m., with passengers back at Campo de Marte by 3:30 p.m. All departures use the Cessna 208B Grand Caravan EX — a nine-seat, single-engine turboprop that Azul Conecta deploys throughout Brazil's regional network of secondary cities and coastal airstrips. The aircraft's compact profile is intentional: Campo de Marte operates a 1,600-meter runway and the coastal destinations served by this route use boutique airstrips that no narrow-body jet could touch.
The Ground Problem That Makes This Route So Compelling
Angra dos Reis ranks among Brazil's most sought-after nautical and resort destinations, generating consistent demand across every Réveillon season. The obstacle has always been the road: a drive from São Paulo's urban center to the Costa Verde takes roughly three hours on a clear day and can balloon to five or six over holiday weekends, when coastal motorways saturate well before midnight. An 85-minute flight reframes the proposition entirely for travelers who had previously written off Angra dos Reis as too far for a short getaway.
Beatriz Barbi, Azul's senior manager of network planning, distribution, and alliances, framed the operation as a calculated bet on leisure demand peaks. In the official announcement, she cited "regional network's flexibility" as the factor that lets Azul calibrate seat supply against seasonal surges while expanding travel options across multiple origin markets.
Carnival Brings a Minas Gerais First
The second operational window — February 6 through 10, 2027 — revives the Campo de Marte–Angra–Jacarepaguá corridor on Wednesdays and Saturdays while adding something the network has never carried before: a direct scheduled link between Confins airport in Belo Horizonte and Angra dos Reis. The pairing is commercially unprecedented, handing Minas Gerais travelers their first regular coastal air option outside of charter arrangements and opening a new chapter for that stretch of the Costa Verde.
São Paulo's Zona Norte Joins Commercial Aviation
Until December 27, Zona Norte residents faced a 30-to-45-minute drive south to Congonhas or a longer trip northeast to Guarulhos — neither particularly convenient for a district sitting almost directly beside Campo de Marte's runway. The airport already logged 66,781 movements in 2025, nearly all helicopters and executive aircraft, with projections reaching 98,031 movements by 2030. Whether Azul Conecta's seasonal debut earns a permanent commercial slot will depend on what load factors show over the next two holiday cycles. What is already confirmed is that São Paulo's fourth commercial airport is its oldest — the one that spent nine decades waiting for its passengers to finally show up.
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