Air travel across Brazil ground to a crawl on 25 February after a combination of weather-related ATC restrictions and overnight technical glitches hit key hubs. Monitoring service FlightAware recorded 73 delays and 12 cancellations by mid-afternoon across São Paulo-Guarulhos (GRU), Congonhas (CGH), Belo Horizonte-Confins (CNF), Rio de Janeiro-Galeão (GIG) and Salvador (SSA).
Travelers caught in these disruptions may also face documentation snags if their itineraries spill over visa validity windows or require last-minute re-routing. VisaHQ’s online platform (https://www.visahq.com/brazil/) can quickly arrange Brazilian e-visas, extensions, and even passport services, letting passengers sort out paperwork from their phones while airlines work to restore normal operations.
![Severe Flight Disruptions Ripple Across Brazil’s Major Hubs]()
LATAM Brasil bore the brunt with 22 percent of its schedule delayed and five flights cancelled, while Azul saw six cancellations on its regional Azul Conecta operation. International carriers were not spared: Emirates and Air Canada each reported more than half of their inbound rotations delayed, triggering missed connections onward to domestic destinations.
The knock-on effects are being felt in corporate mobility programmes as travellers scramble to re-book last-segment hops for plant visits in the interior; one São Paulo-based logistics firm said five of its engineers bound for Manaus missed a same-day connection, forcing hotel and per-diem extensions.
Brazil’s Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) has not issued an official cause beyond “operational constraints,” but industry sources cite a three-hour outage of the central flight-plan processing system overnight. With Carnival recovery traffic still busy and COP30 venue preparations ramping up, airlines are urging passengers to use mobile apps for real-time re-routing and to avoid checking bags on short domestic hops to keep options flexible.
Travelers caught in these disruptions may also face documentation snags if their itineraries spill over visa validity windows or require last-minute re-routing. VisaHQ’s online platform (https://www.visahq.com/brazil/) can quickly arrange Brazilian e-visas, extensions, and even passport services, letting passengers sort out paperwork from their phones while airlines work to restore normal operations.
LATAM Brasil bore the brunt with 22 percent of its schedule delayed and five flights cancelled, while Azul saw six cancellations on its regional Azul Conecta operation. International carriers were not spared: Emirates and Air Canada each reported more than half of their inbound rotations delayed, triggering missed connections onward to domestic destinations.
The knock-on effects are being felt in corporate mobility programmes as travellers scramble to re-book last-segment hops for plant visits in the interior; one São Paulo-based logistics firm said five of its engineers bound for Manaus missed a same-day connection, forcing hotel and per-diem extensions.
Brazil’s Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) has not issued an official cause beyond “operational constraints,” but industry sources cite a three-hour outage of the central flight-plan processing system overnight. With Carnival recovery traffic still busy and COP30 venue preparations ramping up, airlines are urging passengers to use mobile apps for real-time re-routing and to avoid checking bags on short domestic hops to keep options flexible.
