Brazil to Auction off 16 More Airports to Private Investors by End of 2022 in Push for Economic Recovery
A passenger holds his mobile phone while looking at an electronic flight notice board displaying cancelled flights at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on November 27, 2021, after several countries banned flights from South Africa following the discovery of a new Covid-19 variant Omicron. - A flurry of countries around the world have banned ban flights from southern Africa following the discovery of the variant, including the United States, Canada, Australia,Thailand, Brazil and several European countries. The main countries targeted by the shutdown include South Africa, Botswana, eSwatini (Swaziland), Lesotho, Namibia, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty Images

The government of Brazil is auctioning a number of airports in an effort to raise investments and modernize infrastructure in the country.

According to CNN, 16 airports would be auctioned by the Brazilian government, including Congonhas in São Paulo and Santos Dumont in Rio de Janeiro before the end of 2022.

Brazil to Auction Dozen of Airports

The government of Brazil announced its decision to privatize these airports in a Twitter post on Wednesday. The government said the 16 airports add to Brazil's 34 airports already auctioned since 2019.

The Brazilian government noted that this privatization move has already raised around 34 billion reais or US$ 6 billion.

"It is strategic for Brazil to transfer control of airports to the private sector in order to increase investments and the quality of services," the government said in its Twitter post.

The auctions of the airports came after the global aviation industry struggled and faced some challenges due to COVID-19 travel bans.

Despite some improvements in the industry's situation in other nations like the U.S. and Europe, Brazil's aviation sector is still suffering from the impact of being one of the hardest-hit countries by the pandemic.

Brazil is currently holding the second-highest COVID-19 death toll in the world, next to the United States. Brazil auctioned its airports as the country experienced one of its worst crisis in history.

$600M Raised in Privatization Auction of 22 Airports in Brazil

In April, Reuters reported that Brazil auctioned 22 airports which ended up accumulating 3.3 billion reais or US$ 593.11 million.

Brazilian infrastructure company CCR won the largest group of airports. The auction was part of a wave of privatizations that the government of Brazil is pushing.

CCR won the licenses to operate the two largest blocks of airports, including the one in the southern city of Curitiba. CCR would be operating 15 airports, nine in south Brazil, of which it bid 2.1 billion reais or US$ 382 million, and six in the central region with 754 million reais or US$ 135 million bid.

CCR Chief Executive Marcos Cauduro said the infrastructure company would bid on the next privatization auctions, and has a 5 billion-real cash position that was enough to pay for the licenses they had acquired.

Brazil's Infrastructure Minister Tarcisio de Freitas noted that they consider the auction result extraordinary since the COVID pandemic strongly affected all airports.

According to Frietas, the government did not focus a lot on the value paid to the government but rather on how the winners would invest in the facilities.

The auction raised a similar sum of money as a previous airport auction in 2019, when the auction of a single group of airports in Brazil's northeast collected $500 million.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Jess Smith

WATCH: Country Outlook - Brazil Airports Privatization, the Success Model and Future Opportunities - From GIASummitTV