Brazil's Guarulhos International Airport gets remarkable upgrade ahead of 2014 FIFA World Cup

Passengers are seen at Sao Paulo International Airport, in Guarulhos, Brazil.

With less than a month to go for the 2014 FIFA Brazil World Cup, the newly constructed terminal 3 at the Guarulhos International Airport has been one of the few success stories in preparation for the World Cup.

Back in 2009, Infraero had announced their € 549.8 million plan to upgrade the Guarulhos International Airport, the busiest airport in Latin America by passenger traffic, for the World Cup and the Summer Olympics in 2016.

Almost five years later now, the airport looks like the only structure implemented the way it was promised to be. Construction of a 192,000 square meters passenger Terminal 3 came with a price tag of R$ 1.1 million, and now adds an additional 12 million passenger capacity to the 17 million of the two existing terminals.

The terminal has been constructed using sustainable engineering, and was finished by the expected date and within the allocated budget of R$ 2.9 billion.

“This seems to be the only success story,” Ricardo Gazetta, a sales manager in Sao Paulo told Bloomberg while checking in for a flight to Portugal. “It looks like a serious building, it’s huge, it’s beautiful.”

“Operationally, it’s been a success from day one,” Gustavo Figueiredo, the chief operations officer of Terminal 3 said. “The focus is on the passenger. He does his own check-in and can quickly enter the departure lounge where he can relax and be sure he won’t miss his flight.”

One of the interesting perks of the newly-upgraded airport is the presence of a mall in Terminal 3 where iPhones were said to be have been on sale for just about $649 at a selected shop, almost half the price one has to pay at stores in the city.

On the other hand, Brazil has failed to deliver a staggering 45% of the infrastructure projects that were promised to be built at the time when it won the rights to host the stadium.