Rio Branco International Airport Plácido de Castro
(IATA: RBR, ICAO: SBRB) is an international airport in the municipality of Rio Branco and the main one in the state of Acre. It is located in the rural area of the municipality of Rio Branco, on the banks of the BR-364 highway, and at a distance of 25 km from the city center. It was built at the end of the 1990s, because the old airport area was repossessed by the courts to its true owner. Rio Branco airport serves domestic, international, general and military aviation, with the operation of scheduled airlines and air taxis. The terminal is prepared to receive 2.4 million passengers per year and carries out around 6 daily operations.
The airport was already obsolete when the court decided that the area should return to its owner, a private individual. Work on the new airport had to be started quickly and its inauguration was on November 22, 1999. BR-364 was then doubled to facilitate access, which to this day is complicated by the enormous distance from the city center.
In May 2010, work began to restore the apron and runway system at Rio Branco International Airport, necessary due to problems in the terrain on which the landing and take-off runway was built, which suffers from expansive soil. compromising its integrity. With just over 10 years of operation, the runway’s useful life has been reduced by more than half of what was predicted. A major renovation began in 2014, seeking to expand the airport’s service capacity, which increased from 1.3 million to 2.4 million passengers per year, in addition to renovating the runway. In 2018, the airport was once again handed over to the population of Rio Branco and the region.
It was once the 7th busiest airport in the North region, and the 38th busiest airport in Brazil.
