Flying to Rio De Janeiro on a budget
Rio De Janeiro is a large city served by 2 airports in Brazil. Across the city's airports, around 22 airlines operate roughly 128 documented route pairings, connecting Rio De Janeiro to approximately 35 direct destinations worldwide. For budget travellers, having multiple airports in one city is usually good news. Secondary airports tend to host the lowest-cost carriers and the cheapest fares, but the trade-off is a slower (and sometimes pricier) ground transfer to the city centre.
The cheapest combination of base fare plus ground transport almost never lives at the same airport. As a rule of thumb, fly into the most-served airport when you have luggage, late arrival times, or a fixed work meeting. Fly into the cheapest secondary airport when you are travelling light, have flexible plans, and are arriving mid-day with the buses still running. We break down the airports below in order of route volume, so you can quickly see which carriers and destinations each one specialises in.
Airports serving Rio De Janeiro
Rio Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)
Brazil · 98 routes · 25 destinations
Santos Dumont Airport (SDU)
Brazil · 30 routes · 18 destinations
Tips for landing in Rio De Janeiro cheap
- Compare airports before booking. The headline-cheapest fare into the secondary airport is sometimes wiped out by a EUR 20+ ground transfer to the city centre.
- Check the last public-transport time. Late arrivals can force a pricey taxi if you miss the bus or train; verify against the inbound landing time, not the scheduled.
- Pre-book ground transport for arrival. A pre-paid bus ticket bought online is usually the cheapest predictable option; airport-counter taxi rates can run two to three times the metered fare.
- If you have multiple airports, fly in and out of different ones. Use Google Flights' multi-city search to capture the cheapest combination of one-ways across two airports.
- Watch for currency exchange traps. The airport bureaux are the worst place to change money; withdraw from a major-bank ATM in arrivals instead.
Top destinations from Rio De Janeiro
| Code | City | Country |
|---|---|---|
| GRU | Sao Paulo | Brazil |
| CWB | Curitiba | Brazil |
| VCP | Campinas | Brazil |
| BSB | Brasilia | Brazil |
| POA | Porto Alegre | Brazil |
| SSA | Salvador | Brazil |
| CGH | Sao Paulo | Brazil |
| CNF | Belo Horizonte | Brazil |
| EZE | Buenos Aires | Argentina |
| DFW | Dallas-Fort Worth | United States |
| JFK | New York | United States |
| MIA | Miami | United States |
| FLN | Florianopolis | Brazil |
| FOR | Fortaleza | Brazil |
| JPA | Joao Pessoa | Brazil |
| REC | Recife | Brazil |
| CLT | Charlotte | United States |
| LIM | Lima | Peru |
| ATL | Atlanta | United States |
| SDQ | Santo Domingo | Dominican Republic |
Airlines flying from Rio De Janeiro
American Airlines (AA)
United States
United Airlines (UA)
United States
Delta Air Lines (DL)
United States
US Airways (US)
United States
Air France (AF)
France
Alitalia (AZ)
Italy · Budget
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL)
Netherlands
British Airways (BA)
United Kingdom
Azul (AD)
Brazil · Budget
Sky Express (G3)
Greece · Budget
TAM Brazilian Airlines (JJ)
Brazil
Emirates (EK)
United Arab Emirates
Avianca - Aerovias Nacionales de Colombia (AV)
AVIANCA
LAN Airlines (LA)
Chile
TAP Portugal (TP)
Portugal
Copa Airlines (CM)
Panama
Aerolineas Argentinas (AR)
Argentina
Oceanair (O6)
Brazil