October 5, 2001
An airport serving Palmas, the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Tocantins, made its public debut. This airport, which replaced one that had been in use for only about a decade, is located 18.6 miles (30 kilometers) from the central area of Palmas.
The new airport was officially opened by José Wilson Siqueira Campos (1928-2023), governor of Tocantins. Other public officials attending this event included Fernando Henrique Cardoso (born in 1931), the 34th president of Brazil.
The airport was named after Lysias Rodrigues (1896-1957), a major-brigadier general in the Brazilian Air Force who is widely regarded as one of the country’s leading pioneers of both military and civilian aviation. He was also an accomplished engineer, writer, and historian.
Palmas-Brigadeiro Lysias Rodrigues International Airport was operated by the Brazilian government corporation Infraero (Empresa Brasileira de Infraestructura Aeroportuária) until 2021. The transportation company CCR (Compahia de Concessões Rodoviáras) then took over the operations of the airport.
CCR was rebranded as Motiva in April 2025. In November of that year, the company’s entire airports portfolio was sold to Mexican airport operator ASUR (Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste, S.A.B. de C.V.). ASUR formally became operator of Palmas-Brigadeiro Lysias Rodrigues International Airport in 2026.
Photo Credit: Apcs78 (licensed under the Creative Commons Alike 4.0 International license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)
For more information on Palmas-Brigadeiro Lysias Rodrigues International Airport, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmas_Airport
Leave a comment