What Is CGH Airport? Congonhas, the São Paulo Airport With a Curfew

Like Guarulhos (GRU) and Viracopos (VCP), CGH sits under the city name Sao Paulo in IATA's database; the GRU guide explains the area code SAO.

What CGH is, and who runs it

Law 13,450 of 2017 added Deputado (Deputy) Freitas Nobre to the name. "Congonhas" is older: Aena's history page says it honors the Viscount of Congonhas do Campo, and that the airport opened in 1936 in Vila Congonhas, then a district of Campo Belo, before the city grew around it.

ANAC, the federal civil aviation regulator, auctioned Congonhas with ten other airports on August 18, 2022 and dates the 30-year concession from June 5, 2023. Aena, a Spanish airport operator, says it took over on October 17, 2023, a day after ANAC's timeline ends Phase IA, the handover of operations.

By June 5, 2028, that timeline requires adapting passenger and baggage capacity, including parking and access roads. Aena's December 2025 note puts the investment above R$ 2 billion and 19 jet bridges instead of 12; its April 2026 note says a terminal twice the current size. Works changed the road too: since June 13, 2026, drivers heading toward downtown on Avenida Washington Luís use a new entrance about 50 m ahead.

Why it shuts at 11 p.m., and the other limits

The rule is ANAC's Resolution 55 of 2008: no civil aircraft may operate at Congonhas after 11 p.m. or before 6 a.m., except flights carrying a seriously ill or injured person or organs for transplant, and search-and-rescue flights. DECEA's record adds military operations. Near closing, approaches can be suspended so landings end by 10:45 p.m. A 2022 engineering study for the concession attributes the hours restriction to the airport's residential location and says longer hours are impossible.

ANAC's Decision 756, of September 2026, lets flights already scheduled for the day finish after 11 p.m. in what it calls a systemic contingency: a supervening event outside the operators' control. Opening hours do not change. The rule applies only once DECEA, the airport's concessionaire, LATAM, GOL and Azul conclude an operating agreement; ANAC said on September 9 it was still being drafted, and we found no published version on October 9.

Slots, permitted landing or takeoff times, ration the open hours too. Congonhas is one of four airports where ANAC allocates them, because of severe limits on airport capacity. Aena's declarations of capacity, published through the season ending October 30, 2027, allow 44 landings and takeoffs an hour: 36 for airlines, 4 for general aviation and 4 held back during the works. At the start, only airlines above a size threshold may ask for slots, and none may hold more than 45% of them. On October 1, ANAC opened a public call for comments on these rules, due December 29, 2026; it says the call is not a decision to change them.

Airline jets use the 1,883 m main runway: since February 19, 2026, ANAC bars airline passenger jets from the shorter one. DECEA allows regular use by aircraft of reference code 4C or smaller and lists a deceleration system, EMAS, at each end. International flights are open only to state aircraft. Aena has asked to reopen the airport to regular South American routes from 2028; the GRU guide follows that request, and DECEA's record still showed no international tag on October 9.

What flies from CGH

Aena's airline directory, read on October 9, 2026, lists Azul, GOL, LATAM and Voepass. ANAC's register of flights for August 2026, the latest month published that day, shows 7,957 scheduled flights from CGH that were flown (another 144 were canceled), by our sum: GOL 3,365, LATAM 3,330 and Azul 1,262, to 42 airports, all in Brazil. Voepass appears nowhere in it.

Rio takes the largest share, on the ponte aérea (air bridge): 1,509 departures to Santos Dumont, Rio's downtown airport, 19% of the total and about 49 a day. The GIG guide covers that airport's cap; the baggage guide compares allowances.

Getting into São Paulo

Read on October 9, 2026:

The monorail station has its entrance on the terminal's lower floor, reached by a 60 m tunnel under Avenida Washington Luís. The Metro, the state's subway company, expects trains about every nine minutes, and said on October 9 that the line runs normally on the October 12 holiday, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Aena's how-to-get-there page does not mention it.

Bus 609J-10 starts and ends on the loop road to the curbs. It is the only line that SPTrans, the city bus company, lists there in its place search; others, such as the 875A-10 that Aena names, pass on the avenue beside it. From São Judas, paying as a visitor has its own catch.

Taxis follow the meter, which adds 30% per km from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. on working days and on Sundays and holidays. A 2015 city ordinance lets stand 606 (on Aena's list) and the special-category stand sell an optional prepaid ticket by distance: 10 km costs R$ 67, or R$ 79 on the higher rate, and the meter stays an option. In June 2026 Aena announced a permanent task force against illegal transport there. The Uber guide has the ride-app rules.

Between Congonhas and Guarulhos

Changing between GRU and CGH always means collecting your bag and carrying it across the city, LATAM and GOL both say; the connection guide has the rule behind it.

EMTU, which lists the state's metropolitan bus lines, has one that ends at Congonhas: the executive 258, Aeroporto Executivo (executive airport service), run by Consórcio Internorte. Airport Bus Service, the executive bus Aena lists, shows the same 25 daily departures, 6:20 a.m. to 10:50 p.m., every day, at the authorized fare of R$ 50.75, though its route page advertises fares from R$ 39.90. EMTU lists 1 hour 30 minutes; the booking page allows 65 to 80 minutes, by Guarulhos terminal. The GRU guide to the city covers the other end.

Neither LATAM's nor GOL's connection page, read on October 9, 2026, gives a minimum time for changing airports; LATAM gives 60 minutes between two domestic flights inside Congonhas. Azul's own bus runs only between Congonhas and Viracopos. After an international arrival, a change of airport ends the visa-free transit exemption, as the layover guide explains.

One terminal, two floors of gates

The single passenger terminal, which LATAM calls Terminal 1, has a ground floor, two upper floors and a basement. GOL puts gates 1 to 12 on the upper floor and 13 to 22 on the lower one. Aena's declarations count 22 gates, 12 aircraft stands with jet bridges and 18 remote ones, plus 21 to 23 passenger buses. Aena's directories, read on October 9, 2026, place every airline on the terminal's ground floor and list a remote boarding lounge, 24-hour luggage storage in the basement and a city tourist desk open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. by the arrivals corridor.

Sources

Accessed October 9, 2026.

• Presidency — Law 13,450/2017
• IATA — code search. DECEA — SBSP record
• ANAC — Resolution 55/2008, Decision 756/2026 and news, Decision 533/2022, slot page, call for comments, Resolution 787/2025, concession page, timeline, contract, engineering study and August 2026 flights, summed for SBSP (controls SBCF, SBGL)
• Aena — history, airlines, how to get there, shops, declarations of capacity for S26, W26 and S27, August statistics, notes of December 23, 2025, March 31, April 7, June 10 and June 25, 2026
• São Paulo — SPTrans 609J-10, place search and fares; taxi Ordinances 41/2025, 1/2015 and 43/2025, Annex I; Metro timetables, airport station and news of April 1, September 29 and October 9
• EMTU — line 258, found by name search and street search
• LATAM and GOL connection pages; Azul's bus; Airport Bus Service route page and booking results for October 10 to 13

Method on how we research; Jeff Bruno writes from Curitiba. Next door: getting around, all guides.

What we could not verify

• Whether the after-11 p.m. contingency rule applies yet. It needs an operating agreement among DECEA, the concessionaire and the three airlines; the Official Gazette search for its name finds no 2026 act besides the decision.
• Which gates board by bus. No source links GOL's gate numbers to Aena's remote stands.
• A taxi fare to Guarulhos or downtown, or whether the prepaid booths run today. No one publishes the distance the city table needs.