Originally Posted by platbrownguy
Wow. I thought all non-Brazilian carriers had to fly into GRU first... I know AA and UA's flights go USA-GRU-GIG.
15 years ago, nearly all flights flew from GIG. GIG had the long runway and the close-in city location.
Sao Paulo had 2 airports, Congonhas (the LaGuardia, Santos Dumont, London City, Oslo-Fornebu or Washington National of Sao Paulo) and far away Viracopas Campinas (the Mirabel of Sao Paulo). Not too many airlines wanted to use the far away airport at Campinas. Then GRU was developed for commercial airlines.