On Tuesday the 19th in the afternoon, six professionals from the Organising Committee for the Rio 2016™ Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Olympic Public Authority (APO) went through Antônio Carlos Jobim International Airport, known as Galeão, on wheelchairs. The visit had the full support of Infraero (Brazilian Airport Infrastructure Company) and was intended to check mobility and accessibility improvement opportunities at Galeão venues that, in 2016, will receive a great number of people with disabilities in a short period of time.

Professionals from the Rio 2016™ Committee accessibility, transports and arrivals and departures areas took part in the visit. The Operations Department’s Arrivals and Departures Specialist, José Maggessi, coordinated the visit and insisted on going through the whole airport on a wheelchair.

“We saw the airport from a different point of view, a different perspective. Everything went according to plan”, he said. “It’s important to praise Infraero’s attitude, which gave us its full support to carry out this visit, as we are all in the same team after all”.

Maggessi was in London for the Paralympic Games and recalled that airport demand during the delegations’ arrivals and departures is much greater than on any given day.

“I watched the arrivals of delegations from various countries such as Russia, for instance, which had 236 Paralympic representatives, 24 wheelchair users among them, and Malaysia, with 16 wheelchair users in a day. The whole delegations arrivals process took less than 2 hours in both cases. This is the quality that we aim to achieve and in order to do that, we must be aware of the challenges ahead of us”, he said.

The Rio 2016™ Organising Committee’s visit started in Terminal 1, the oldest and the one in need of greater investments in order to receive the Games huge demand. 

Jose Maggessi (dark green shirt) and other Rio 2016 Organising Committee and Olympic Public Authority members check out a toilet (Photo: Divulgation)

“We followed a traveller’s normal path. We started at the pavement, went through the check-in area, went up to the food court on the third floor, came back for boarding through a jet bridge, visited a few toilets and tested the use of telephones, check-in kiosks, drinking fountains, 24h banks, etc. Then, we followed the usual arrivals route. After that, we repeated the same process done at Terminal 2”, Maggessi explained. He also thanked American Airlines and United Airlines for their support in lending wheelchairs.

The Rio 2016™ Technical Visit to Tom Jobim International Airport was accompanied by Infraero professionals such as Paulo Roberto da Silva, Operations Manager, Jorge Luiz Ribeiro, Terminals Coordinator and Silvia Vilanova, Marketing and Social Communication Manager.

“The visit was important so that the Rio 2016™ Committee and the Olympic Public Authority could get to know the airport’s available infrastructure. The operation performed at Galeão Airport during the Parapan American Games, celebrated in 2007 in Rio, is an example of success in the accessibility area”, Paulo Roberto da Silva recalled.