An unexpected wall of fog forced Campinas’ Viracopos International Airport (VCP) to suspend all landings for nearly an hour on 25 June, compelling at least 12 aircraft—most of them Azul Linhas Aéreas flights—to divert to alternate airports such as Guarulhos (GRU) and Galeão (GIG). The disruption struck at 16:50 local time, a peak-bank period for Azul’s domestic hub, and only normalised at 17:45 when visibility improved above 800 metres. METAR reports during the closure showed ceilings as low as 100 feet, well below minimums even for Category II instrument approaches. While departures continued on reduced spacing, the backlog of arrivals triggered a cascading effect on crew-duty limits and aircraft rotations across the evening wave. Azul cancelled seven subsequent legs and, according to flight-tracking data, average delays across its network stretched to 64 minutes. For corporate travellers the immediate impact was missed connections to Belo Horizonte, Curitiba and Brasília—routes heavily used for same-day meetings—while belly-hold cargo, including high-tech components bound for São José dos Campos, required re-routing. Viracopos’ operator, Aeroportos Brasil, said contingency taxi-stands and shuttle buses were activated to move stranded passengers to Guarulhos once the fog density reached critical thresholds. The incident highlights the vulnerability of Brazil’s busiest cargo and low-cost passenger hub to weather anomalies outside the typical early-morning fog window. Mobility managers may want to re-evaluate connection buffers for itineraries relying on VCP, especially during the Southern-hemisphere winter season.
Source: AeroJota
