Belo Horizonte International Airport – Brazil

Belo Horizonte International Airport is one of Brazil’s major connecting hubs, serving around 70 domestic and international destinations and with capacity for 32 million passengers a year. In December 2023, the SYSTRA-IBR consortium began a three-year assignment for BH Airport to develop multidisciplinary studies and designs for the airport’s expansion and improvement programme.

The assignment supports the airport’s long-term investment programme under the 30-year concession that began in 2014. Its dynamic scope covers all stages of study and design across architecture, engineering, airport systems and environmental disciplines.

An integrated multidisciplinary assignment

SYSTRA and IBR Engenharia have brought together a multidisciplinary team to deliver coordinated designs across the airport. The scope includes:

• Architecture and passenger facilities: architecture, landscape design, interiors, visual communication and wayfinding, and waterproofing.
• Civil and structural engineering: topographical surveying, drainage, geotechnical engineering, earthworks, pavements, steel and concrete structures, foundations and retaining structures.
• Electrical, electronic and electromechanical systems: lighting, lightning protection, substations, power distribution, automation, dry utility networks and fire detection and alarm systems.
• Building and passenger-processing systems: air conditioning, ventilation and mechanical extraction, compressed-air systems, escalators, moving walkways, passenger boarding bridges and baggage conveyors.
• Water, sanitation and fire safety: water supply, rainwater management, water treatment, effluent reuse, oil-water separation, sewage systems and treatment plants, and fire protection systems and equipment.
• Airfield and environmental systems: instrument landing systems (ILS), approach lighting systems (ALS), VHF omnidirectional range (VOR), distance measuring equipment (DME), airfield ground lighting, pavement markings, signage and environmental design.

Supporting a long-term development programme

Because the scope extends across terminal facilities, supporting infrastructure and airfield systems, the assignment requires close coordination between disciplines. The consortium’s experience across these areas enables BH Airport to commission studies and designs as needs arise throughout the three-year programme, while maintaining consistent technical and quality standards.