By Sarah de Sainte Croix, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Friday it was announced that fifty percent of the businesses and services at Tom Jobim International Airport in Rio will now remain open 24 hours a day. The agreement was signed just before the weekend between store owners and Infraero (the public company responsible for the administration of Brazil’s airports,) to ensure that essential services such as food outlets and car hire companies remain open throughout the night.
The news follows a flurry of reports in last week’s press saying that passengers on late night flights were arriving to a “ghost airport”.
According to one report in O Globo newspaper, at midnight last Thursday all the shops and services in Terminal One were closed, including the left luggage service which advertises itself as open 24 hours, and in Terminal Two there was just one snack bar open.
The move is the latest attempt to raise standards at the airport ahead of the flood of tourists expected for the 2014 World Cup.
Other measures in the pipe line include renovating all of the stairs and escalators at the airport (due to commence in April) and requiring that all taxis operating through the airport be registered.
Read more (in Portuguese).
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