Tapira, BR 🇧🇷 Closed Airport
BR-2072
-
4370 ft
BR-MG
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Loading...GPS Code: Not available
Local Code: Not available
Location: -19.851667° N, -46.709999° E
Continent: SA
Type: Closed Airport
Keywords: SNFC
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| Designation | Length | Width | Surface | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
15/33 |
3609 ft | 98 ft | GVL | Active |
| Type | Description | Frequency |
|---|
The airport's registration was officially cancelled by Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) on May 2, 2017. The formal decision was published in Portaria (Ordinance) NÂş 1055/SIA. Satellite imagery from the preceding years indicates that the airport had already fallen into a state of disuse before its official closure.
The closure was initiated at the request of the airport's owner and operator at the time, Vale Fertilizantes S.A. (a company later acquired by The Mosaic Company). The reason was primarily economic and logistical. Maintaining a private airfield is expensive, and as regional road networks improved, the operational necessity for a dedicated airstrip likely diminished. Corporate and logistical transport could be more cost-effectively handled through nearby public airports, such as Araxá Airport (SBAX), which is approximately 70 km away by road.
The airport is completely abandoned and defunct. The physical asphalt runway remains visible from satellite imagery, but it is in a state of severe disrepair, unmaintained, and being reclaimed by vegetation. A dirt road now intersects the southern portion of the former runway, rendering it unusable for any aircraft. The site is not used for any aviation-related activities and there are no remaining airport facilities like a terminal or hangars.
Fazenda Forquilha Airport, officially designated SITP by Brazilian authorities (the ICAO code BR-2072 is an unofficial identifier), was a private aerodrome with a single asphalt runway (approximately 1200 meters long). Its sole purpose was to serve the massive Tapira Phosphate Mining Complex, one of Brazil's most significant sources of phosphate rock. The airport was an essential piece of infrastructure for the mine's operators (originally Fosfértil, later Vale Fertilizantes), facilitating executive transport, enabling the rapid arrival of specialized technicians, and allowing for the urgent transport of critical spare parts to the remote industrial site. It played a key role in the logistics and management of the mining operation for several decades.
There are no known or published plans to reopen Fazenda Forquilha Airport. Given that its closure was a deliberate business decision by the mine's operator and the significant degradation of the infrastructure, a reopening is considered highly improbable. The current operator, Mosaic Fertilizantes, utilizes the region's existing public airport infrastructure for its transportation needs.