Recife-Guararapes / Gilberto Freyre International Airport (IATA: REC, ICAO: SBRF) is an international airport located in the municipality of Recife, capital of the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. It is the main airport in the state of Pernambuco, and one of three that have regular passenger transport operations, together with Petrolina International Airport and Fernando de Noronha Airport. It is the busiest airport terminal in the North-Northeast of Brazil, and the eighth Brazilian airport in mov... Recife-Guararapes / Gilberto Freyre International Airport (IATA: REC, ICAO: SBRF) is an international airport located in the municipality of Recife, capital of the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. It is the main airport in the state of Pernambuco, and one of three that have regular passenger transport operations, together with Petrolina International Airport and Fernando de Noronha Airport. It is the busiest airport terminal in the North-Northeast of Brazil, and the eighth Brazilian airport in movement.
Located 12 km from the center of Recife, the airport caters to domestic and international passenger movements. It operates 24 hours a day and its name is an allusion to the historical fact of the Battles of the Guararapes, which occurred in the Brazilian colonial period on the Morro dos Guararapes, located on its west side.
Its construction predates the Second World War, and the conflict served to improve the structure of the Recife Air Base and, consequently, the airport itself. At the end of the 1940s, Recife became of great importance in air traffic, in the midst of the airways of the South Atlantic - Europe, due to its strategic geographical position. Its official name was given on July 2, 1948, when then-president Eurico Gaspar Dutra signed decree 25. 170-A, transforming Recife Airport, located in Campo do Ibura, at Guararapes Airport. The airport nomenclature was again changed on December 27, 2001, by Law No. 10,361, which established the name of Recife / Guararapes International Airport - Gilberto Freyre.
The current passenger terminal has the capacity to receive 16. 5 million passengers per year, which makes Guararapes Airport the largest, in annual capacity, in North-Northeast Brazil. In addition, it has a patio with 21 aircraft positions equipped with jetways (air-conditioned connectors); 64 check-in counters and 2,120 parking spaces. According to Infraero, its runway is 3,007 meters long. The airport was granted in 2019 to the Spanish company Aena Internacional, along with five other airport terminals in the Northeast region, for thirty years.
