Travelers across Brazil are facing another day of uncertainty as LATAM Brasil and GOL Linhas Aéreas record 28 flight cancellations and scores of delays concentrated at São Paulo’s main airports, turning one of South America’s busiest air corridors into a chokepoint for domestic and international journeys.

The disruption, which began in the early hours and intensified through the morning peak, has left passengers sleeping on terminal floors, scrambling for rebookings and confronting long waits at customer service desks.

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Major Hubs in São Paulo Buckle Under Pressure

The latest wave of disruption has centered on the São Paulo metropolitan area, where São Paulo Guarulhos International Airport and São Paulo Congonhas Airport together handle hundreds of daily movements for LATAM and GOL. According to operational data compiled by aviation tracking and passenger rights platforms, a combined 28 flights operated by the two carriers were cancelled across the country, with the largest share originating or arriving in São Paulo. These cancellations were accompanied by dozens of delayed departures, many running more than two hours behind schedule.

At Guarulhos, Brazil’s primary international gateway, flight information screens showed a thick band of red as morning and mid-day services backed up. LATAM, which uses the airport as a central hub for long haul links to Europe and North America, saw multiple domestic connections to cities such as Brasília, Porto Alegre and Recife held on the ground or rerouted. GOL, a dominant player in Brazil’s domestic market, also cancelled and delayed flights tied to Guarulhos, reverberating across its dense point-to-point network.

Congonhas, São Paulo’s centrally located city airport and a crucial business shuttle hub, was similarly strained. Cancellations and rolling delays on trunk routes to Rio de Janeiro’s Santos Dumont Airport and Belo Horizonte’s Tancredo Neves aggravated crowding in its compact terminals. For many passengers, the choice became waiting for a much later same-day departure or accepting a rerouting through alternate cities and overnight stays.

Passengers Stranded and Tempers Fray in Overcrowded Terminals

Scenes inside the terminals reflected a now familiar pattern for Brazilian travelers after months of intermittent nationwide disruptions. Families stretched out on jackets and carry-on bags as improvised bedding, while solo travelers paced between gate areas and service counters in search of information on rebooking and accommodation. Long queues formed in front of airline help desks as call centers struggled to keep up with reallocation requests.

Some passengers arriving from smaller Brazilian cities reported missed international connections at Guarulhos after being held on the tarmac or at remote stands for extended periods. With transatlantic flights frequently fully booked during the Southern Hemisphere summer high season, securing a new seat on the same day was difficult, forcing travelers to replan entire itineraries at short notice.

Complaints shared with local media and on social platforms focused not only on the disruption itself but also on inconsistent communication. Travelers described gate changes announced only at the last minute, delayed notification of cancellations, and difficulty obtaining clear written confirmation required for insurance and compensation claims. For non-Portuguese speakers connecting through São Paulo, language barriers added another layer of stress.

Operational Headwinds: Weather, Staffing and Overstretched Networks

While individual flight disruptions can have many causes, the pattern emerging in Brazil over recent months indicates a combination of structural and short-term pressures. In early January 2026, severe summer storms and an air traffic control staffing crunch triggered nearly 200 delays and additional cancellations at Guarulhos alone, hitting LATAM particularly hard and forcing widespread schedule reshuffling in the days that followed. Adverse weather and staffing restrictions remain recurring vulnerabilities as the peak holiday period continues.

Industry observers note that both LATAM and GOL are operating intensive schedules on relatively tight margins of spare aircraft and crew, a legacy of the pandemic downturn and subsequent rapid rebound in demand. When storms, maintenance issues or airspace restrictions arise, there is limited slack in the system to absorb the shock. A cancelled aircraft rotation in São Paulo can cascade across multiple cities, generating a chain of late departures and missed connections that lasts well beyond the original incident.

Airline unions have repeatedly pointed to high crew utilization and last-minute rostering changes as risk factors for reliability, particularly at congested hubs. Airport operators, for their part, highlight constraints in apron space, security screening and baggage handling infrastructure that can slow turnarounds and block aircraft from reaching gates on time, especially when several carriers are recovering from earlier delays concurrently.

São Paulo’s Central Role in a Wider National Disruption Pattern

Although today’s disruption is most acutely felt in São Paulo, it is part of a broader pattern of irregular operations across Brazil’s aviation network over the past several months. Throughout late 2025, multiple days saw more than 200 delayed flights and around 30 or more cancellations nationwide, with LATAM and GOL often at the center of the turbulence alongside Azul Brazilian Airlines. On several occasions, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, together with Campinas’ Viracopos Airport, accounted for the majority of affected movements.

Travel data from October and November 2025, for example, shows repeated spikes in cancellations and delays linked to combinations of technical issues, localized storms and knock-on effects from busy holiday and long weekend periods. Airports such as Salgado Filho in Porto Alegre, Tancredo Neves in Belo Horizonte and Santos Dumont in Rio have all periodically reported clusters of cancelled departures involving GOL, LATAM and Azul, frequently coinciding with disruptions in São Paulo.

This hub-and-spoke vulnerability means that a relatively modest number of cancellations concentrated at Guarulhos or Congonhas can quickly leave travelers stranded far from São Paulo. A cancelled feeder flight from a regional city may eliminate a passenger’s only same-day connection, while crew and aircraft stranded at outstations can in turn force further cancellations the next morning. For passengers, the experience is one of rolling uncertainty extending beyond a single missed flight.

Consumer Rights and the Question of Compensation

The recurring disruptions have renewed focus on Brazil’s passenger protection framework and how effectively travelers can exercise their rights in practice. Under local aviation and consumer regulations, airlines must provide assistance such as meals, communication, accommodation and rebooking in cases of extended delays or cancellations, with specific obligations depending on the length of the delay and whether the disruption is deemed within the carrier’s control.

In theory, passengers affected by cancellations tied to operational or staffing issues can seek compensation or reimbursement in addition to basic care. In practice, however, many report that obtaining written confirmation of the cause of a disruption or securing vouchers and hotel stays without prolonged negotiation remains challenging. When disruptions involve mixed itineraries or codeshares with foreign partners, the question of which airline bears responsibility can become more complex.

Consumer advocates encourage travelers to document each stage of their disruption, including photos of departure boards, boarding passes, receipts for food and accommodation, and any written communication from the airline. They also advise using both airline channels and independent claims services where appropriate, as mass disruption events in Brazil have previously generated successful compensation claims for affected passengers, particularly when patterns of preventable operational failures could be demonstrated.

Airline and Airport Responses to Mounting Frustration

Facing growing public scrutiny, both LATAM and GOL have highlighted efforts to reinforce their operations and mitigate the impact on future travel days. These measures include the use of larger aircraft on high-demand routes to consolidate disrupted passengers, agreements with partner airlines to accept rebooked travelers, and the deployment of additional staff at check-in and call centers during anticipated peak days.

Airport operators in São Paulo have likewise emphasized investments in infrastructure and contingency planning. At Guarulhos, authorities have worked to improve drainage and stand allocation procedures after previous summer storms flooded remote stands and forced last-minute gate changes. Coordination with the Air Force-managed air traffic control centers has also been tightened, though staffing levels and flow-control decisions remain subject to national constraints.

Despite these efforts, the recurrence of major disruption days in late 2025 and early 2026 suggests that underlying capacity pressures persist. With passenger volumes at or above pre-pandemic levels and limited short-term options for expanding runway or terminal capacity in densely built-up São Paulo, airlines and airports are operating close to their practical limits, leaving little room for error when adverse weather or technical issues arise.

Travel Advice for Passengers Planning Routes Through São Paulo

For travelers with upcoming itineraries involving São Paulo, specialists recommend building extra resilience into their plans while the network remains fragile. Where possible, booking longer connection times at Guarulhos, especially when linking domestic and international segments, can provide a buffer against moderate delays. Early morning departures may offer slightly better on-time performance on some routes, though severe storms or residual disruptions from the previous day can still upset schedules.

Passengers are also urged to monitor flight status closely in the 24 hours before departure and to register contact details with airlines for real-time alerts. Using airline apps to rebook at the first sign of a cancellation can improve chances of securing scarce seats, particularly during weekend peaks and holiday periods. Travelers with critical same-day commitments, such as international events or cruise departures, may consider arriving in São Paulo a day early rather than relying on tight same-day connections.

In the terminals themselves, having a basic contingency kit, including essential medications, chargers, snacks and a change of clothes in carry-on luggage, can make an unexpected overnight stay more manageable. Keeping receipts for all out-of-pocket costs and requesting written confirmation of the reason for any cancellation or long delay can help support later compensation claims.

Outlook: A Stress Test for Brazil’s Aviation Recovery

The current episode of 28 cancellations and widespread delays involving LATAM and GOL underscores the fragile balance underpinning Brazil’s aviation recovery. After several years of financial strain, restructuring and fluctuating demand, carriers are once again transporting large numbers of passengers across a geographically vast country, but with limited reserves of capacity when things go wrong. São Paulo’s role as the central hub in this system magnifies both the benefits and the risks.

Industry analysts say that, in the short term, incremental improvements in scheduling discipline, crew planning and infrastructure coordination may ease some of the worst bottlenecks, but warn that without more substantial investment and contingency capacity, episodes of mass disruption are likely to recur during weather events and peak travel periods. For now, travelers transiting Brazil’s largest city must navigate an environment where even a relatively small number of cancellations can cascade into a nationwide challenge.

As airlines, regulators and airport operators assess the fallout from the latest wave of cancellations in São Paulo, passengers left stranded in departure halls are already recalculating their plans. Their experience highlights both the resilience of Brazilian travelers and the urgent need for a more robust system capable of withstanding the shocks that have become a near-constant feature of the country’s aviation calendar.