Sao Paulo Guarulhos Airport Passenger Reviews and Sao Paulo Airport Travel Reports

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Worst airport I have been to. Poor signaling - (if you don't ask somebody who speaks English, or even Spanish you're lost). Constantly changing gates. No fast way to move people by way of electric walkways. Most announcements are only in Portuguese, which I find discourteous. Not enough gates so we have to take a bus to get to a connecting flight. They are not ready for World Cup or the Olympics. I enjoy visiting Brazil, but when I think of what I have to endure to get there, I prefer to go elsewhere.

I go to Europe or the US regularly from my home in Brasilia and frequently the connection is here (or GIG Galeao Rio, only marginally better). The place is being refurbished for the WC in 2014, of course, but remains a really depressing and badly run place. If your flight allows you to board on a walkway, then you're lucky - if it involves a bus, it's cattle class. The TAM / Star Alliance lounges are pitiful, the duty free is cramped, options for eating are poor before you go through to the gates and worse afterwards, everything is ludicrously expensive. Everywhere you go there are people on the floor because they have no option. There's really nothing good to be said about the place - sorry.

GRU is in my opinion a terrible airport. Small by international standards, considering it is the main port of entry in Brazil, overcrowded, check in usually a mess, immigration and customs queues ok if you are lucky. If you're arriving at peak time, be prepared to wait at least 1 and a half hours to clear immigration and get your luggage and clear customs. Poor signage. Lack of free wifi. You have to be at your boarding gate early, otherwise you will be left standing due to lack of enough seats.

Transited through GRU 3 times in 2.5 weeks, Dec-Jan with connecting Domestic-International, International- Domestic and Domestic-International. It is not clear on the connections process with no dedicated connections channels process. In connecting you need to leave the baggage claim area and if connecting International to Domestic you will need to collect your luggage (even if ticketed through and have boarding pass) and go to Connections Desks on the other side of the lifts as you come out of Domestic Baggage claims. If connecting Domestic to International you shouldn't need to (if you have your boarding pass and luggage through ticketed) so as you come out of Domestic arrivals go straight up to International Departures on 1st Floor. A better choice of eating and shopping landside with a 'pub' style bar that has more comfortable style seating and waiter service. Overall, options are not great landside but far better than airside particularly Domestic. International airside more options than Domestic but not sufficient eating facilities for passengers at the times I was flying. Something to note are the potentially long queues you can have when departing Internationally. The security screening overall area isn't big enough for busy periods and you will be faced with a large queue if leaving in the evening, but it does seems to move quite quickly and there are plenty of security screening scanners when through the queue. You should also be aware that departing immigration checks can be long depending on whether you are Brazilian or not and when you fly. As non- Brazilian I had experience of both time slots and when transiting the first time and leaving mid-evening for a flight to Buenos Aires I got caught in a queue of fellow Europeans returning home and had to wait nearly an hour to clear departure immigration. On the last transit I left on a late evening TAM flight back to Europe I found the non-Brazilian queue very quick whereas the queue for Brazilians was huge and slow. You need a minimum 2 hour connection time in GRU if connecting Domestic to International or reverse, however it did appear there were TAM agents at the Domestic arrivals door to deal with passengers on flights departing imminently.

Went to GRU last month to meet a friend. Many quick improvements have been done lately, like new restrooms, new restaurants and a real upgrade in terminal signs - indeed, very similar to the design used in Schiphol-Amsterdam. Small regional airliners are now operating to a new terminal 4 located 1.3 mile away (with a 5-minute ride bus shuttle between main terminal and new terminal 4). Guarulhos Airport main building still looks a bit dated overall and it was really crowded. But, GRU is getting much better. Hope to see improvements, especially in comfort.

I was expecting the worse after having read the recent poor reviews of this airport. My main issue here is the poor signage. I had 6 hours wait and it passed very comfortably. Arrived into T1 Domestic and left from International T1. The bus from the plane drops you off, and you have to go through the main doors and straight forward towards exit and baggage carousels. Go through the black doors into T1 and take the lift up to the 1st floor. This area is divided into wings, and if you have not already checked in and do not have a boarding pass, proceed left to Wing B if travelling on TAM (Airlines directory of check-in desks near to the lift). If you have your boarding pass, turn right out of the lift and the International Departure gates entrance is approx 100 yards on your left. There is an information desk near the lift - staff very helpful and speak English. There are plenty of WiFi areas and re-charging socket towers at the gates. Plenty of seating (although I agree the seats could be more comfortable) and sufficient food outlets and duty free shops. The food is overpriced, but no different from other airports I have visited eg. CDG Paris. The temperature in the airport was temperate - not too hot.

Unfortunately I travel through this airport up to 4 times a year, which I thought might mean I'd get used to it, but not as yet. Very few places to buy food and what food that is on sale is very expensive even by international airport standards, the seating areas aren't great and if you have to spend an extended period at the airport then you're well out of luck if trying to find somewhere a bit more comfortable to sit. The signage and flow between international and domestic flights, and domestic to domestic flights, is slowly getting better but it's still quite poor, especially as the country is due to host the football world cup and Olympics. Aesthetically the building is drab with no natural light which gives it a generally depressing feel. Transport links from the airport are ok, buses located outside the terminal and a taxi company has a desk outside of each terminal - not sure why it's outside the terminal but don't bother looking inside as you won't find anything there. Difficult to pre-book a taxi through the local airport provider as nobody seems to speak English. If travelling back from the city to airport on a Friday keep in mind that traffic is horrendous and the journey time can be up to 3 hours, as opposed to 1 hour in off peak traffic. Within the last 2 years an information desk has been put in a more prominent position within the airport and they now even have some staff that can speak English. I sometimes case my mind back over all the airports I've ever flown in to and try to compare Guarulhos airport with all the others. Maybe I haven't travelled enough, but as yet Jo'burg international airport back in 1997 is the only airport that compares with Sao Paulo in terms of general shabbiness.

Not as bad as some of the reviewers have commented earlier, but I really wish there were few lounge chairs. Chairs with upright back when you have to wait for 7 hours for the next flight does not help at all. Food was ridiculously expensive too, I paid almost USD 20 for a slice of pizza and coke! And yes, it is true about unannounced gates changes. Gate for my domestic flight was changed twice, I am not sure if they announced it or not, even if they had, I would not have understood.

I look at this airport, with ageing infrastructure and several elevators out of service, and inadequate signage (even if one understands Portuguese) and wonder how on earth it will be ready for the crowds descending on it for the World Cup and, later, the Olympics. There is a lot of work to do. The Customs process does move quicker now (no form to fill out unless you have something to declare), but overall GRU looks like an old airport in need of massive renovations, or replacement.

I had two stopovers on my trip to South America. One was for 3 hours, and the other for 14 hours. To be kind, this airport is a dump. It is very old, outdated, and in need of desperate upgrading. In the international terminal, where flights of 200-350 people leave at a single gate, there may only be 40-50 seats. This leads to massive queues and many people having to sit on the nasty floors while waiting. There is very limited selections of food and they are very overpriced, and the duty free shop isn't even worth going into. It is really too bad that this is the first impression people get of Brazil as the main entrance into the country of international travelers. I don't know how they are going to handle the World Cup and Olympics with the very limited space and outdated facilities they have currently.

I have the displeasure to make stopovers in Sao Paulo every year, and it seems to get worse every time. There are no gates: you have to take buses to the aircraft's, and they are always packed and warm! At the airport there are always huge queues for everything, the building is old and dirty. No air conditioning! There's nothing to do apart from queuing: a few crowded restaurants and one ridiculously expensive duty free shop. You just have to sit on the floor and wait.

Expect long lines everywhere, mainly in immigration, not to mention expensive food and transportation to Sao Paulo downtown. Only positive aspect is that Guarulhos airport is pretty clean and security has improved.

I flew through Sao Paulo on a connection between Santiago and Florianopolis last week. My first impression of the airport was dingy and dated. Customs went very fast, but I heard it can take longer in peak season. Transferring to domestic is a little interesting, the signage is not that good and the airport is usually busy. In the domestic terminal, there are very few places to eat, expensive food and are not good but very busy. At the time I was there, half the flight information screens did not work and neither the flight number indicator over the gate. This combined with last minute/random gate changes, large crowds and everybody loading onto busses makes it very complicated.

They crammed 3 large flights into a small holding area. Two of the flights were delayed so this compounded the problem. Not enough seats. Transferring from domestic to international is difficult if you do not understand Portuguese. We got sent back to several different lines as we did not have the correct stamp. Queues for security were incredible. I have no idea how Brazil is going to be able to handle the World Cup and the Olympics in a few years time. They simply do not have the facilities.

No delays at Immigration or Customs. Duty free store pricier than we'd recalled from previous visits. It was fairly warm the day we arrived and there seemed to be no air conditioning anywhere but in the American Express Club. Not the worst airport I've been to, but I can't even conceive it being ready for the crowds expected to descent for the World Cup in two years. If you're going to Brazil, this airport gets the highest number of international flights. And other options, such as GIG (Rio de Janeiro) and BSB (Brasilia) are not really any better.

I'm Brazilian and I have the displeasure to land there from abroad at least twice a year. It's old, bad food, small, overcrowded and when you arrive for customs you have the real idea of the nightmare you are entering. No queue and no staff to organize the mess. If you can avoid it, do.

Travelled through this airport every year for 12 years. The only improvement we've noticed is now there are a couple of overpriced restaurants, whereas before there was only duty-free. The airport is very clean, which is good as you'll probably end up sitting on the floor due to the overcrowding and lack of facilities. It is extremely dark and worn, there are no gate staff in the terminal so you are largely on your own finding your gate or dealing with problems. All flights disembark onto buses, then you have to walk up into the terminal, usually they change the gate for your flight randomly every 30 minutes of so. These changes are often unannounced, and announcements are only in Portuguese. Unfortunately almost all flights to Brazil go through GRU.

Very old, ugly airport. Arriving from LHR, transfer to domestic. We knew we'd need to clear Customs and Immigration in Sao Paulo, what we did not know was how long it would take. Landed at 6.05 am, a wave of flights land at this time. A TAM representative told us we had missed our connection to the 7.20, immigration queue took around 45 mins and they could have got us to the front but did not. By the time we got to baggage claim our bags were there, customs took 5mins and there is a baggage re-check centre outside customs - a great help in rechecking into the 13.20 flight, saving us keeping hold of bags until normal check- in opened. The check-in hall is reasonably bare with very few places to eat, shop etc. The queue at security was outrageously long. We went in around 11.40, coming out at around 12.15. Luckily, we did not fall victim to the last minute gate-change which GRU is infamous for. Coming back for domestic transfer, quite boring transit but did not need to re-enter security. A very poorly run airport.

Everything that has been said above is true. You can be lucky with immigration, I have done it in a few minutes or unlucky when it can take an hour. The food and facilities are awful and the business lounge the worst I have ever seen.

One of the ugliest airports, 1960's architecture at it's worst. The lines are truly awful, immigration is a nightmare, then baggage claim and customs are your surprise nightmare. Do not attempt a connection here with less than 3 hours between, it isn't possible. Do not expect assistance, information, directions - do expect to wait in a 20 mins line for McDonalds if you can find it. If you are a club member, do not think you will relax there, just be happy if you can even find a chair and have your earplugs handy if you want some quiet.

No gates - even fully loaded long haul 747 flights have to use buses to get to the terminal. Huge queues for security for connections and no fast-track for business or gold card holders. No maps or diagrams showing where your departure gates are. Queues at bus gates all mixed up, very easy to get on the wrong flight. Staff unable/unwilling to direct you. Standing room only in the business lounge. Terminals are depressing dark concrete structures that look more like a dictator's bunker.

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