Fortaleza Airport Reviews

This airport has a lot of domestic flights on the wee hours, and therefore there’s always some movement. Also, because the last Guanabara bus from Jericoacoara arrives at 10pm and will leave again only 5am, some people will be waiting for their plane-bus connections. The food court is nice and has some eateries open around the clock (their Vignoli branch is the best deal I’ve encountered in Brazilian airports, but it closes at night). Once at the domestic airside, there are comfy armchairs and some carpeted areas where you can lay down nicely if you don’t mind, but there is always a lot of light. The airport lounge at the domestic airside is nice and it accepts people that just landed, without further plane connections, but it is not 24h. (and indeed, as someone commented, if you have luggage to check, it’s more or less common that they’ll take it only 3h before departure, but you can enter the airside earlier if you only have carry-on)

That an Airport like Fortaleza with an increasing number of European travellers does not have anything resembling a lounge, let alone a business lounge, is a letdown. TAP being a Star Alliance member and bringing quite a few and probably more and more business class customers from Europe to Fortaleza, and back, cannot really afford not to offer anything somewhat comfortable to their customers. Unbelievable and unacceptable.

On the 27th of september I flew from Amsterdam to Fortaleza. My connection was a domestic flight with a layover of about 10 hours. I was the only foreigner there at the moment and almost no one spoke English. I had to pick up my checked bagage because of my transfer to a domestic flight. I wanted to check in my bagage right away but they wouldn’t allow me to. So I had to wait about 6 hours before I could get rid of my bagage. WIth my bagage it was hard to explore the airport so I decided to just wait and chill. The seats they have are not comfy at all. The have btw lots of outputs to charge your Phone if you want to. I was looking for a quit spot to lay down a bit because I was getting sick of sitting for hours and hours so I ended on the 3rd floor. On the 3rd floor there is only one output that I could find. If you plan to have a layover at Pinto Martins bring a blanket so you can at least lay on the floor. I didn’t try the food at the food court but it looked quite good.

Right, I used this airport twice when visiting Jericoacoara and I am glad I did not spend much time on it, it is very old, and shady… people approaching you all the time to offer things, prices are a RIP OFF, if you are european… it will be expensive for you as well! ride sharing apps are your best bet cause taxis will try to rip you off. Such a shame I expected better.

Our flight was at 5am and we got to the airport directly from a nearby beach around 9pm. The airport is cold and has no place to sleep comfortably. We didn't have a sleeping bag and the armrest of the chairs made it almost impossible to sleep.
The observation deck on the 2nd floor was the best place we found with good wifi and plenty of phone chargers.