A total of 619,660 passengers arrived in Brazil on international flights, the highest level in February since 2005.

The number of passengers arriving on flights from abroad reached a record in February 2010. According to Infraero, Brazil’s National Airport Authority, a total of 619,660 people arrived in Brazil on international flights (scheduled and charter flights).This result is 22.06% higher than in the same month last year, when the total was 507,664.

“In addition to Embratur’s promotional work abroad, Brazil now has an image throughout the world that arouses great curiosity and makes people want to visit the country. We are working to ensure we can receive a growing number of tourists and meet visitors’ expectations of Brazil,” said the Tourism Minister, Luiz Barretto.

Scheduled flights were up 23% (588,915 arrivals in February 2010 against 478,883 in February 2009). Charter flights increased by 6.8% - with 30,745 people arriving in February this year, compared with 28,781 in the same month in 2009.

New record also in first two months of 2010

For Jeanine Pires, the president of Embratur, the Brazilian Tourist Institute, these results show good prospects for the coming year. “In the first two months of the year international arrivals were 16.5% higher than in the same period in 2009. Combined with the significant growth in inflows of dollars from foreign tourists, which increased by 18% in February, these numbers show that we have had an excellent summer and confirm the recovery in international tourism, which began at the end of last year,” she said.

In February there were 903 direct flights per week from foreign airports to Brazil. Latin America accounted for 51.83% of arrivals, followed by North America (22.70%), Europe (22.14%), Asia (1.66%) and Africa (1.66%).