Santa Quitéria Airport

The primary reason for the closure was the airport's failure to meet minimum operational and safety standards. ANAC closed the airfield due to its precarious infrastructure, including a poorly maintained runway and lack of required safety features. The municipal government of Santa Quitéria, which was responsible for the airport's administration and upkeep, did not perform the necessary investments and improvements demanded by the aviation authority, leading to its interdiction and eventual permanent deletion from the official registry.

The airport site is currently abandoned and in a state of complete disrepair. The unpaved runway is still visible from satellite imagery but is overgrown with vegetation, eroded, and completely unusable for any aviation purposes. The land has not been officially repurposed for another use and remains derelict. There have been local reports of the abandoned area being used for illicit activities and as an informal dumping ground.

The airport, officially known as Aeródromo de Santa Quitéria with the correct ICAO code SNQT (the code BR-0109 is a non-standard identifier used in some unofficial databases), was a public airfield that served general aviation. It never handled large-scale commercial airline flights. Its main role was to connect the relatively remote municipality with the state capital, Fortaleza, and other regional centers. Operations included air taxis, private planes for business people and politicians, agricultural aviation, and critical emergency medical flights (UTI Aérea). It was an important piece of infrastructure for the region's development and accessibility before the local road network was significantly improved.

There are currently no concrete, funded plans to reopen or rebuild the airport. The prospect of a new or renovated airport is a recurring topic in local politics, often promised during election campaigns, but without tangible results. The most significant potential driver for a future airport in the region is the proposed 'Santa Quitéria Project,' a major mining venture to extract uranium and phosphate. If this large-scale project moves forward, it would almost certainly require a functional local airfield for logistics and personnel transport. However, the mining project itself faces significant delays, environmental licensing challenges, and local opposition, making any associated airport development highly uncertain and dependent on the project's future.