By Xinhua
Rio De Janeiro : The Brazilian government has announced that another airport will be built in Sao Paulo, following Tuesdays' airplane accident that killed about 200 people at the Congonhas International Airport.
In a speech on national television Friday night, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that despite the recent investment in the Congonhas airport, the main problem of the traffic overflow remained.
He then announced a series of measures to be taken to solve the problem, including building a new airport in Sao Paulo.
According to the Presidency's Chief of Staff Dilma Roussef, the new airport will serve as an alternative to relieve traffic pressure at Congonhas.
The government has not yet decided where to build the airport. The National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) will release a study within the next 90 days listing the requirements and possible locations for the new airport, she said.
Brazil's Civil Aviation Council (Conac) Friday announced new measures to reduce aircraft traffic at the Congonhas airport.
Following the announcement Friday, Brazil's Civil Aviation National Agency (ANAC) has 60-days to reallocate the flights of the airlines that use Congonhas.
The airport will no longer operate as a stopover or handle charter flights. It will now only handle direct flights. ANAC will have to revise accords with other countries so it can redistribute foreign flights.
The aviation council also asked ANAC to provide more compensation to the families of those killed in the accident involving a TAM airlines plane.
ANAC has three months to present options for a location for a new airport in Sao Paulo, Conac said.
Specialists have said that the operations systems at Congonhas are not viable. Congonhas is located in the centre of Brazil's largest city Sao Paulo and is the busiest airport in South America.
The cause of the Airbus A-320 accident remains uncertain. Suspicion was initially aroused over the uncompleted grooving service on the runway, which could have prompted the aircraft to skid on a rainy day like Tuesday.
However, airline TAM, which operated the flight, Thursday revealed that it had detected a malfunction in the thrust reversal device of the plane's right engine, which integrates the braking system.
Although the company was aware of the problem three days before the tragedy, it did not prevent the plane, carrying 187 people, from flying.
TAM stated that, according to manufacturer Airbus' guide, the airline is allowed to fly the aircraft up to ten days after it detected this kind of defect.